United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-00-005
Environmental Protection February 2000
Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
Regulatory
Announcement
Final Rule on Flexibility Amendments to
Inspection/Maintenance Program
Requirements
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing a Final
Rulemaking that will amend the motor vehicle Inspection and
Maintenance (I/M) requirements to allow states greater flexibility in
deciding how to apportion the emission reductions they need from I/M
versus other measures, taking into account local needs and conditions.
Background
The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAA) required certain
nonattainment areas across the country to implement either basic or
enhanced vehicle I/M programs, depending upon the severity of the
area's air quality problem. The CAA also required that Metropolitan
Statistical Areas with 1990 populations over 100,000 within an Ozone
Transport Region (OTR) implement enhanced I/M regardless of their air
quality designation. EPA, in turn, was required to develop minimum
performance and administrative requirements to be met by areas required
to implement I/M, whether basic or enhanced.
On November 5, 1992, EPA issued its original rule establishing mini-
mum performance and administrative requirements for states developing
air quality implementation plans for I/M. For enhanced I/M areas, this
rule included a performance standard that assumed IM240 tailpipe
emission testing as well as evaporative system purge and pressure test-
ing. This performance standard was amended in 1995 and 1996 such that
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the current I/M rule requires enhanced I/M
programs to produce the same or better
emission reductions as would be achieved
by one of three possible enhanced I/M
performance standards: high enhanced,
low enhanced, and OTR low enhanced.
As a result of the original presumption of
IM240 testing, some of the I/M rule's
remaining test procedure and related
requirements are too prescriptive and
might possibly exclude valid, alternative
test methodologies. EPA is therefore
taking action to revise these requirements
to ensure that innovative approaches will
not conflict with dated requirements.
The 1992 I/M rule also included a require-
ment that enhanced I/M programs provide
motorists that fail the inspection with
computer-generated information based on
particular portions of the test. This require-
ment was again based upon the presump-
tion that all enhanced I/M programs would
include IM240 tailpipe testing. In 1995,
however, EPA was barred from requiring
IM240 in enhanced I/M. programs under
one of the provisions of the newly enacted
National Highway System Designation
Act. In the IM240's place, a wide-range of
alternative I/M tests have been approved
for use in enhanced I/M programs. These
tests do not produce the detailed diagnostic
information originally envisioned in 1992,
and we are therefore taking action to
change this requirement to better accom-
modate these alternative testing strategies.
EPA believes that revisions are needed to
bring the I/M rule up to date by: (1) incor-
porating changes in policy; (2) revising
provisions to make them consistent with
the National Highway Systems Designa-
tion Act of 1995; and (3) providing states
additional flexibility to tailor their I/M
programs now to better meet current and
future needs. Among these future needs are
the need to maximize program efficiency
and customer convenience by capitalizing
on newer vehicle testing options, and the
need to accommodate an in-use fleet which
is in the process of turning over to newer,
cleaner, and more durable vehicle tech-
nologies. It is necessary to remove certain
restrictions in the current rule that would
impede that transition.
Final
Key elements of this rulemaking include:
« Amending performance standard
requirements to provide enhanced I/M
areas greater flexibility in how they
meet the performance standard and to
lower the overall modeling burden.
• Revising certain test procedure,
standard and equipment requirements
to better accommodate alternative test
types and design, including the use of
evaporative testing in lieu of tailpipe
testing.
• Revising the requirements for con-
sumer protection and improving
repair effectiveness to limit the cur-
rent diagnostic information require-
ments to those programs and test
types capable of producing such
information, reliably and practically.
• Expanding the options for complying
with the on-road testing requirement
to accommodate more recent varia-
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tions, such as clean screening and
non-tailpipe based roadside tests by
removing current language that
suggests that the on-road test must be
a tailpipe test and include out-of-cycle
repairs.
Removing the current provision
establishing the decentralized, test-
and-repair discount, in response to the
National Highway System Designa-
tion Act of 1995. In addition, we are
extending the definition of decentral-
ized test-only to allow testing stations
that engage in a full range of sales not
directly related to automotive sales or
services to still be considered test-
only.
For
Additional documents on I/M programs
are available electronically on the Office of
Transportation and Air Quality web site at:
http ://www. epa.gov/otaq/im.htm
For further information on this final rule-
making, please contact David Sosnowski
at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Transportation and Air Quality
2000 Traverwood Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
734-214-4823
for
The flexibility that this rule provides will
apply to any state required to implement II
M if the state chooses to utilize the options
for additional flexibilities. Modifications to
a state's I/M program as a result of this
rulemaking may require a SIP revision, if a
state's plan has already been submitted and
approved.
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