Phoenix Snowbirds Help Foul Winter Nest

PHOENIX — Most snowbirds don’t fly. They drive, drawn by the warm sunshine and mornings free of ice scrapers.

Retired people from northern states who spend a few months each year in the Sun Belt, few snowbirds register their cars and motor homes when they arrive. It leaves local officials in a bind--happy with the boost to the local economy, unhappy with a worsening air pollution problem around Phoenix.

Because the vehicles aren’t registered, officials can’t make sure they meet Maricopa County’s tough emission standards, created to ease carbon monoxide, ozone and particulate pollution labeled “serious” for several years by the federal government.

Newcomers aren’t required to register until they’ve lived in the state for seven months, effectively exempting the winter visitors, said Ira Domsky, manager for air quality planning at the state Department of Environmental Quality.

“The policy decision was made quite a while ago that they wanted to make this a friendly place for people who wanted to live here during the winter,” Domsky said.

The department estimates that as many as 14% of the cars in the county are registered elsewhere. Most belong to visitors.

The county’s tough emission tests require cleaner cars. If the state required all cars to be registered, it could curb carbon monoxide pollution by about 1%, the department estimates.

The brown cloud of pollution over the Phoenix area can’t be ignored, said winter visitors Owen Traynor and his wife, Jackie, who have been wintering here since 1984, driving down from their home in Ogden, Utah.

“I just wish there was something that could be done about it, because we drive in and see how bad it looks,” he said.

The Traynors said they would gladly help, even if it meant additional tests for their Utah-registered car and motor home.

State Rep. Carolyn Allen said most snowbirds would be as willing to help as the Traynors. She said she will bring an as-yet undetermined proposal before a government task force on air quality.

The problem comes up nearly every year in the state Legislature, but a solution to the pollution from winter cars has yet to win support.

“We have really not been able to come up with a mechanism to capture that group of people [winter visitors], short of having people roaming around trailer parks. Implementation becomes difficult unless you’re willing to set up roadblocks,” Domsky said.