Pollution Panel Adds $2 Vehicle Fee

A $2 fee will be tacked on to each vehicle registration bill, starting in April, to pay for the cost of a countywide program to reduce smog, San Diego County Air Pollution Control District directors voted Tuesday.

The APCD action will yield $500,000 through June, 1991, and about $3.4 million annually, which will go into the creation of a traffic-control program aimed at reducing vehicle mileage in the county and into enforcement of pollution regulations. By the end of the century, funds are expected to grow to about $8 million annually with the increase in the number of vehicles registered in the county and the anticipated increase to a $4 fee in 1992.

The APCD board, composed of the five-member County Board of Supervisors, was empowered to levy the countywide fee under state legislation passed this fall to finance programs mandated by the state Clean Air Act of 1988, which requires drastic reductions in vehicle travel to bring air quality standards up to state requirements.

Richard Sommerville, county air pollution control officer, told board members that they will be asked to increase the fee to $4 per registration next December if the funds accumulated do not meet the program costs.

San Diego County violated state air quality standards for smog 158 days in 1989, and about 60% of the smog-forming pollution came from trucks and automobiles, Sommerville said.