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Did you know.. ? This is good news for all our Cobra fans.  -Gear 6

Idaho Statesman: Ada County drivers get a break: fewer emissions tests
While the state prepares to force testing on Canyon motorists, Ada adopts a new policy.
  -Idaho Statesman | Published: 12/18/09

The Ada County Air Quality Board's new rules start Jan. 1, 2010:

• Tests will be required every other year - even-model-year vehicles in even years, odd-model-year cars in odd years.

• New vehicles will be exempted for their first four years.

• Vehicles built before 1981 and hybrids will be exempted.

• The maximum test fee will be $20.

But if you just got your postcard or have been putting off a test already due, you'll still be expected to comply with the old rules.

The changes are based on those proposed by the Treasure Valley Air Quality Council and approved by the Idaho Legislature.

The board says the result will be 57 percent fewer tests annually, and that may mean some of the county's testing stations might close or be replaced by a new testing program.

"Business will go down," said Henry Bercher, who operates a testing station at Franklin and Curtis in Boise. "We are going to try and hang in there as long as we can."

While Bercher tested a 1971 pickup - for the last time, the owner was excited to hear Thursday - he said he has known for a couple of years that change was coming for Ada County emission testing.

Price wars, advertising, loyal customers and location will determine how many of the 70 or so testing stations around the county survive, he said.

Meanwhile, this week the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality advertised for a firm to conduct emission tests for Canyon County and Kuna, which never have required testing but must under a new state law.

DEQ plans to select a firm in February and start testing by June 1. The agency is still open to how the program should work. They're exploring ideas such as a centralized testing facility or multiple testing stations.

The state could, too, use remote testing, a nonintrusive method of measuring emissions from individual vehicles as they drive past a sensor deployed at roadside locations.

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