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 Reporting a smoking vehicle doesn't snuff it out At first glance, it might seem like a good way for the average citizen to help clear the air. Like other California air districts, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District advertises a toll-free number -- (800) 559-9AIR -- to report vehicles that emit visible exhaust. Callers filed 2,462 smoking vehicle complaints with the district last year, an average of more than seven per business day. In other years, the hot line, which began in 1993, has handled as many as 8,500 such complaints. But what happens after a complaint is filed? Generally, not much. Almost three-quarters of the letters that the district sent to smoking vehicle owners last year got no response. Of the rest, half the owners said they repaired the vehicle or junked it. Many others offered comments such as these:
Of the 1,797 letters the district mailed to owners of allegedly smoking vehicles last year, 90 were returned by the post office, 1,289 others brought no reply, and only 217 -- fewer than 1 in 8 -- resulted in assurances from the owners of repairs or other corrective action. For 665 vehicles, no letter was sent because either no registration could be found or they were registered outside the district. There are several reasons for the hot line's poor performance. The district has no way to tell legitimate smoking vehicle complaints from crank calls. It has no way to tell whether vehicle owners are truthful when they say they have made repairs, or that their vehicles don't need repairs. Perhaps most significantly, the district has no way to enforce its will. It can't issue fines or other penalties to smoking vehicle owners, even those who are flat-out defiant. Driving a smoking vehicle is a California Vehicle Code violation and can draw a fine of $100 to $5,000, but only from police, not the district. And the district does not forward complaints to the police, no matter what the details may be. Valley air district officials nevertheless maintain that the smoking vehicle program has a beneficial effect on air quality. "First," district spokeswoman Josette Merced Bello says, "it gives everyday citizens an opportunity to participate in air pollution reduction in a tangible way. Second, the number of smoking vehicles on the road [or at least the number of complaints] is going down." But what about the fact that only one in eight letters results in a smoking vehicle being fixed or junked? "Well," Bello says, "our response would be it's better than doing nothing."
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©
2002 The Fresno Bee
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