Supervisors to Weigh Plan to Smoke Out Polluting Vehicles

Ventura County residents would be able to report smoke-belching cars, trucks or buses on a new toll-free hot line, under a program to be considered by county supervisors today.

Also, under the proposed Smoking Vehicle Program--to be operational this spring--a California Highway Patrol officer would be hired and placed under contract to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District to search area roads for mobile polluters and ticket offenders.

Multiple offenses would bring fines of up to $250 for automobile drivers and up to $5,000 for commercial truck drivers, said Richard H. Baldwin, Ventura County Air Pollution Control officer.

The Smoking Vehicle Program is part of a county anti-pollution plan that Baldwin said he will present to the supervisors today.

The program is one of 12 facets of the anti-pollution plan that Baldwin proposes to create or augment with $950,000 in new county revenue due this year from a motor vehicle registration fee increase. The increase, authorized by state legislation signed Sept. 30, allows the county to add $2 to the Department of Motor Vehicle registration fees of an estimated 500,000 vehicle owners in Ventura County. The legislation also permits counties to double the increase to $4 in subsequent years.

“Motor vehicles cause half the county’s ozone pollution,” Baldwin said. “It’s time that the drivers of these motor vehicles begin to pay to help solve the problems they cause.”

Supervisor Susan Lacey, who has pushed for measures to improve the county’s air, said the new fees are a reasonable means to pay for cleaner air.

“I’ve wanted smog cops for a long time,” she said. “Maybe now we can get people to follow the law.”

Baldwin said he has requested (800) NO-SMOKE as the hot line phone number for the Smoking Vehicle Program, but he hasn’t yet received phone company approval. The district expects to receive about 350 calls each month, he said.

If the proposal is approved, the Air Pollution Control District would add 10 new employees to its existing 54-member staff.

Until the legislation was approved, Baldwin said, “the California Clean Air Act mandated that we establish a lot of new programs and meet emission-reduction goals, but it didn’t give us the resources to do the work.”

The district proposal also includes provisions to:

* Help the county, cities and school districts develop programs to begin using automobiles that are powered by methanol or compressed natural gas.

* Enhance the air pollution control district’s public education program.

* Expand an existing regulation that requires large employers to provide incentives to employees to share rides or reduce their use of automobiles to get to work.

* Improve the district’s ability to forecast violations of the federal and state health standards.

* Help the Ventura County Transportation Commission to develop a traffic model to show how future development would affect traffic and pollution.

Ventura County’s air pollution district has the ninth worst ozone air pollution in the nation according to the most recent reports, Baldwin said. The South Coast Air Quality Management District--which includes Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties--has the smoggiest air in the state and nation.

Ventura County ties with Fresno and Kern counties for third worst in the state.

Ozone pollution is formed when emissions from motor vehicles and industry mix together and cook in sunlight.