Countywide vehicle tests possible

Attorney general opinion says fee could be assessed

NASHVILLE — A new Tennessee attorney general’s opinion says the state has authority to set up a vehicle emissions testing program in Shelby County and charge motorists a fee to pay for it, as it has in six counties in the Nashville and Chattanooga areas.

But the opinion says the state probably could not impose a countywide fee to pay for vehicle testing only in the city of Memphis, as it suggests was being considered by state officials.

Atty. Gen. Robert E. Cooper’s advisory opinion comes after Memphis ended its vehicle inspection program Friday. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is “looking at all options” for a new inspection program in the Memphis area to keep the state in compliance with federal air pollution laws, TDEC spokeswoman Meg Lockhart said after the opinion’s public release Tuesday. “But we are hopeful that the local air program will meet its obligation to have a vehicle inspection program as previously committed to both the state and to EPA that they would do.”

Memphis was the only one of Tennessee’s major urban areas with vehicle emissions testing where the inspections were limited only to residents of the central city. The testing programs are countywide in Davidson, Hamilton, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties.

The state has delegated administration of the Davidson County program to the Metro Nashville Public Health Department, which contracts with a private vendor to perform the inspections. The state administers the program in the other five counties and contracts directly with a different vendor to con-

duct the tests. Motorists pay $9 or $10 at the test stations. Compliance certificates issued at the stations are required for annual license plate renewals.

Although all of Shelby is a “nonattainment” area under federal air-quality standards for ozone pollution, only cars registered inside Memphis were tested from 1983 through last Friday. Faced with budget pressures and citing the unfairness of only Memphis residents subject to inspections, the City Council voted last year to discontinue the $2.7 million testing program, leaving it to either Shelby County or the state. Both the county and state have refused, even though 42 percent of vehicles registered in the county are registered outside Memphis.

But the attorney general’s opinion, sought by state Sen. Jim Kyle, DMemphis, makes it clear that under federal law, the “state is responsible for assuring air quality within its geographic area, by submitting ... a state implementation plan that specifies how each air quality control region within the state will achieve and maintain” standards.

The opinion also says that lawyers in Cooper’s office “understand TDEC anticipates that a countywide charge would be imposed” for a testing program that “would apply only to vehicles registered within the city of Mem- phis.” But it says case law indicates the state cannot impose a fee countywide to pay for a Memphis-only inspection program.

TDEC’s Lockhart said the agency understands that local officials “are still talking to see if they can resolve this issue.” She said the city and county “could face EPA sanctions, including the loss of highway funds, if they do not operate the program. Or the state could take over the program.”

But Kyle said, “It’s clear from the opinion that whether we’re an attainment area or not is a responsibility of the state. And I look forward to hearing the plan they bring forth after consultation with our local governments — municipalities and the county.”