The unpopular program, which affects motorists in 14 Ohio counties, including the Akron-Cleveland area, has removed far less pollution than hoped for, said Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials. But the agency still stands behind E-Check and is not troubled by the findings, said spokeswoman Linda Oros. The lack of results is due largely to overly optimistic federal projections and repeated changes in E-Check, which weakened the test, officials said. The news also comes at a time when Ohio is looking at requiring E-Check in a total of 33 counties in order to comply with tighter federal limits for ozone.
Stark County is likely to be affected by that expansion.
E-Check has led to a reduction of 181 tons a day of three key pollutants in the air in the Akron, Cleveland, Dayton and Cincinnati areas, but that's far less than had been expected, the EPA report said. Predictions not met VOCs are the main pollutant that E-Check tests are designed to fight. Federal computer models had predicted that the program would remove 73.4 tons a day of these compounds from the air, but a look at 1998 data indicates that only 24.5 tons of such chemicals were removed, the report said. The tests of vehicles that first failed E-Check and later passed showed that the resulting reduction in VOC pollution was equal to removing 223,471 cars from the roads, EPA Director Christopher Jones said in a memo. The carbon monoxide reduction was equal to the pollution from 183,825 cars, and the nitrogen oxide reduction was equal to 79,765 cars, the agency said.