ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 2, 1996 TAG: 9612020014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FAIRFAX
SOURCE: Associated Press
A PILOT PROJECT in Northern Virginia has begun taking pictures of the tailpipe pollution on crowded highways.
Picture this: You take the old clunker out for a couple of Sunday drives. Weeks later comes an official notice in the mail that your car is a heavy polluter, and you better get it fixed or risk a fine.
Virginia environmental officials plan to use high-tech cameras and infrared light beams to sniff out the worst polluters on Northern Virginia's crowded roads.
A pilot project began in late November. By mid-1998, the Department of Environmental Quality plans to install the ``remote sensing'' equipment across the region.
The pilot, to run until Christmas, will give state officials a benchmark pollution reading that can be compared with future readings to gauge progress, said David J. Kinsey, a state environmental program manager.
The state won't hand out any tickets as a result of the pilot project, Kinsey said. Citations could happen starting late next year, however, when Northern Virginia is required to toughen its emissions testing to meet federal clean-air laws.
Spot checks of car exhaust are part of the new federal requirement, Kinsey said.
``This is a lot more convenient than random roadside checkpoints, and motorists told us they preferred it,'' he said.
The equipment tests the air immediately behind a car's tailpipe. A camera snaps a picture of the rear license plate, and the state matches the pollution data with the car registration.
Two or more consecutive bad readings and you get an official notice to have a tailpipe emissions test within 90 days. If the test reveals a problem with the car, you get it fixed. Fail to do so makes the car's registration invalid. The state also could fine the driver $450, although Kinsey said that will happen rarely.
``We're not after people's money. We want their cars to be clean,'' Kinsey said.
Any state use of surveillance cameras is deeply disconcerting to many people, said Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
``This is exactly what people think of when they think of Big Brother,'' Willis said.
Surveillance cameras are already used to catch speeders and other traffic violators. It's a prickly privacy issue but does not violate the Constitution, he said. ``Courts have held that driving is a privilege, not a right, so the usual constitutional protections do not apply.''
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