PHOENIX — Some proposed laws designed to clean up the air in Maricopa County could end up forcing thousands more Southern Arizona residents to put their vehicles through mandatory emission testing.
Members of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs voted 5-2 Wednesday to enact broad new requirements on people and businesses in metropolitan Phoenix. These range from covering loads of rock and dirt in trucks to banning the use of leaf blowers — whether gasoline or electric — on days of high pollution.
Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-Scottsdale, said SB 1552 is mostly designed to bring Maricopa County into compliance with federal air-quality standards. The county has recorded multiple air-quality violations, putting it at risk of losing federal funds.
But Gov. Janet Napolitano, at a joint press conference Wednesday with Allen, said she wants a broader focus.
People are also reading…
"This is not about federal standards," she said.
"What it's about is the quality of life in our state. If we don't take care of these environmental issues concurrently we're going to lose this quality of life we enjoy."
That is where Southern Arizona fits in. The law now requires residents of the Tucson metropolitan area to have their vehicles inspected to ensure they do not violate pollution standards.
As originally written, the bill expanded the emission test area by more than 950 square miles, including Sahuarita and Green Valley to the south of Tucson, out east past Vail, and north and west to take in not only the rest of Marana but also, for the first time ever, more than 500 square miles of southern Pinal County.
Expansion of the testing area was removed from the bill, at least for the time being, with Allen's consent, on Wednesday — along with expanded test areas in central Pinal and Maricopa counties — because, she said, they endangered the chance of the measure getting out of the committee.
But Allen said she is determined to have the final version of the legislation include expanded emission testing.
"They are still coming into our community," she said, and their vehicles are adding to the pollution problem.
Napolitano said she expects the bill to be more comprehensive, calling it "the base that we are starting from." Nor does the governor believe any new regulations should be limited to the Phoenix metropolitan area.
"It's not a Valley problem," the governor said. Allen agreed.
"If you look in Pima County, you look in Tucson and all of the growth areas … they all seem to be bringing three cars with them," she said. "We are all in this together."
Rusty Bowers, executive director of the Arizona Rock Products Association, said conditions in the desert will make it difficult to ever bring the area into compliance with air-quality regulations and eliminate the "brown cloud."
But Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler, who said he has heard similar complaints by people in farming and construction, said the evidence doesn't bear that out.
"Overwhelmingly, the violations (of air-quality laws) take place during the weekdays," he said. "And the rain and the weather and the temperature don't know the difference between weekdays and weekends."
