Air Quality Board
Ada County Emission Testing
Termination of Ada and Canyon County
Emissions Testing Programs
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Ada and Canyon County Emissions Testing Programs Terminated on July 1, 2023
I received a notice. Do I still need to get my emissions tested?
No. You may disregard the notice, even if the testing due date was before July 1, 2023; emission testing is no longer required for any vehicles registered in Ada County.
My registration has been revoked. What happens now?
Registrations that were still revoked for failure to comply with emissions testing requirements as of close of business on June 30 were automatically reinstated on July 1, 2023. No further action is required of you.
Why did emissions testing end?
In 2022, the Idaho Legislature passed a law to repeal the state requirement for vehicle inspection and maintenance programs (emissions testing) effective July 1, 2023. This state requirement applies to all of Ada and Canyon Counties.
Ada County has additional federal and local requirements
In December 2022, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) submitted a request to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove the federal requirement for Ada County.
Based on that submission, EPA proposed to remove the federal emissions testing requirement for Ada County and solicited public comment on that action from March 30 through May 22, 2023.
On June 8, 2023, the EPA Regional Administrator approved the action to rescind the federal emission testing requirement for Ada County. The EPA began a required 30-day notice of this action on June 15; the action will officially take effect on July 17, 2023.
Local jurisdictions in Ada County have corresponding ordinances to implement the federally required emissions testing program. The agencies are in the process of rescinding those ordinances.
To provide for a cohesive termination of both programs, the final day of the Ada County emission testing program was June 30, 2023, the same day as the Canyon County program.
What does this mean for air quality and public health?
Data indicate that the benefits of the emissions testing programs have declined in recent years because newer vehicles meet tougher emissions standards. DEQ’s computer modeling confirms this and demonstrates that removal of the emissions testing requirement will not result in substantive negative impacts to air quality and public health.
Despite cleaner vehicles, air pollution is still a concern. Idaho and the Treasure Valley will still have periods of deteriorated air quality from time to time, and vehicles will remain a contributing factor to the pollution.
The public is still asked to do its part to help keep vehicle emissions down by maintaining their vehicles, driving less when possible, and avoiding unnecessary idling.
Air Quality
Maintaining Idaho’s air quality is a job where everyone can play a role. Poor air quality is unhealthy for everyone, but especially for children, senior citizens and people with respiratory conditions like asthma. With cleaner air, there are fewer trips to the emergency room and lower respiratory illness rates. It also keeps wildlife and plant life thriving.
Cleaner, healthier air requires both local and regional efforts. The Air Quality Board (AQB) leads Idaho in caring for the state’s air quality by partnering with communities, business and industry, organizations and private citizens to provide the knowledge and tools necessary to create workable solutions to air quality issues.
Air Quality Index
After the amount of pollution is measured, it is compared to the federal standard. To make it easy to compare the various pollutants and determine the air quality, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Air Quality Index (AQI), a guide for reporting daily air quality.
The AQI indicates how clean or polluted the air is in a particular area and identifies potential health impacts. The AQI focuses on health effects that can happen within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. Department of Environmental Quality uses the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide.
You can think of the AQI as a measuring stick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health danger. For example, an AQI value of 50 represents good air quality and little potential to affect public health, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality with potentially serious health impacts.
An AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to the national air quality standard for the pollutant, which is the level EPA has set to protect public health. So, AQI values below 100 are considered healthful. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is considered to be unhealthy—at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.
Based on the measurements, air quality is then categorized according to health risk ranging from good to hazardous, with four stages in between. Each stage is assigned a color. Because the AQI is a national index, the values and colors used to show local air quality and the associated level of health concern are the same everywhere in the United States.
To learn more about Air Quality, below are links to the Environmental Protection Agency web sites.