Emissions testing is the law in Belleville, Collinsville and high-traffic cities

Q: Why are they wasting tax money on auto emissions testing? Now they don’t even tell you when your tests are due, and I can’t find when my next one is. Why does Collinsville have to have it, but not Belleville? Why does Highland not have to have one, Alhambra either? What about the trucks that are doing all the polluting?

A: Call me a tree-hugging radiclib if you want, but if you grew up next to a busy highway as I did, you might come to think that testing anything more powerful than a 50cc motor scooter is worth every penny.

My family lived along South Belt West/Illinois 13 before U.S. 460 (Illinois 15) opened, and our noses were constantly assaulted by the noxious fumes of countless old rattletraps flying past. These were, of course, still the days of leaded gas and before catalytic converters so who knows how many points were shaved off my IQ as my brother and I played Wiffle ball in the backyard? So, no, I do not mind the small inconvenience of having my car checked every couple of years in order to (hopefully) improve health and the environment.

Like it or not, motor vehicle emissions are a significant source of pollution, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. You probably know the dangers of carbon monoxide, but the latter two can combine with sunlight to form ground-level ozone or smog. This ozone can aggravate heart disease, asthma and emphysema and is particularly harmful for children and the elderly. That’s why the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 requires emissions test programs in large metropolitan areas that do not meet certain air quality standards.

“Although Illinois has made significant strides to clean its air since the amendments took effect, levels of air pollution in the Chicago and metro-East St. Louis areas still exceed these standards,” a state spokesman told me.

You see, rural areas don’t have the traffic congestion leading to those nasty pollution warnings meteorologists sometimes give us during summer temperature inversions. It’s like burning leaves. If you do it on your 500-acre farm, nobody notices. If everybody in Belleville does it as they did years ago, the town on Saturday afternoons looks like Dresden during a WWII bombing raid. You can’t even breathe to ride a bike.

That’s why testing is done in only 10 heavily populated Illinois counties — seven around Chicago plus Madison, Monroe and St. Clair. But even in the three downstate counties, people living in many zipcodes are exempt because, again, towns like Mascoutah (62258) are more rural than the central corridor of East St. Louis, Belleville, etc. — and let me assure you that Belleville is not exempt. But, yes, Collinsville is subject to it, but not Alhambra nor Highland.

I have to agree with you that not testing those smoke-belching semis does leave you scratching your head, but for whatever reason, the Clean Air Act does not include diesel-powered vehicles in emissions testing programs. States that have tried to implement such requirements have met stiff opposition from the trucking industry, saying it would be too costly, add to the price of shipping and cause companies to close.

“However, Illinois has implemented a program to inspect certain heavy-duty diesel-powered trucks over 16,000 pounds in ozone non-attainment areas through a program administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation,” the IEPA spokesman told me.

Testing also is required on all 2007 or newer gas-powered heavy-duty vehicles between 8,500 and 14,000 pounds. There has also been a push for several years to convert to diesel fuel with ultra-low sulfur levels of 15 parts per million, just 3 percent of the standard 500 ppm.

As for not being able to find the date of your next test, you might want to check again at www.epa.illinois.gov. Whether I entered my license plate number or my vehicle identification number, I was told immediately that my next test is due after Oct. 1. So try one more time and be proud you’re playing a small role in keeping the atmosphere a trifle cleaner.

Q: Some fundraising efforts ask you to collect only the pull-tabs from aluminum cans. There can’t be much money in that, so why aren’t they asking for you to donate the whole can?

A: Can you imagine the terror you’d see in the eyes of McDonald’s managers if they saw customer after customer unloading trunks full of huge, filthy garbage bags bulging with sticky soda cans at their clean restaurants?

The logistics of storing and then transporting them to recycling centers would be a nightmare. So while cans might bring them more money, they and others are quite satisfied with the tabs, thank you very much.

“The tab is much cleaner and easier to collect in large quantities than whole cans,” the restaurant chain says. “By itself, it doesn’t mean much, but when you pull together, pop-tabs add up and become a valuable donation to your local Ronald McDonald House.”

Of course, if you wanted to recycle your cans and send the money to the Ronald McDonald House Charities at 3450 Park Ave., St. Louis 63104, I’m sure they’d appreciate it. For more information on donating or starting a tab collection program, go to www.rmhcstl.com.

Today’s trivia

What legendary pro wrestler signed a major league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals after graduating from high school?

Answer to Wednesday’s trivia: When Robert Bloch needed inspiration for his novel “Psycho,” he didn’t have to look far.

Bloch was living in Weyauwega, Wis., in 1957 when police uncovered the stomach-turning crimes of Ed Gein in nearby Plainfield. It wasn’t bad enough that Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned keepsakes from their bones and skin. He also later confessed to killing two women, including one he had beheaded and hung in his shed while putting her heart in a coffee can.

Bloch said later that he based “Psycho” on the circumstances of the Gein case, not Gein himself, focusing on “the notion that the man next door may be a monster unsuspected even in the gossip-ridden microcosm of small-town life.” However, after all of Gein’s bloody work was eventually revealed, Bloch later said he was surprised by how similar Norman Bates and Gein had turned out, “both in overt act and apparent motivation.”

In 1968, Gein was found guilty but legally insane. He died in 1984 at age 77 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Plainfield.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 6:40 AM with the headline "Emissions testing is the law in Belleville, Collinsville and high-traffic cities."