The Utah Clean Air Partnership has awarded a $25,000 grant to Salt Lake County to help repair vehicles with poor emissions.
The County is matching that grant with an additional $25,000. All that money goes to the Vehicle Repair Assistance Program, which helps low-income drivers with cars that—except for bad emissions—are otherwise well maintained.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams says these repairs go a long way toward reducing air pollution in the valley.
“Improving the emissions of a single high-polluting vehicle would be the equivalent of reducing air pollution from 100 vehicles. So—significant bang for our buck with these investments,” says McAdams.
Summer Cox is a resident of Salt Lake County. She was laid off from her job last August. When she discovered that her car needed a repair to pass its emissions test, she turned to the program.
“We went into the area where all of the county vehicles are maintained, and so we just left it there for a day and picked it back up,” she says. “I mean, the car runs the same, but now I know that it’s not polluting.”
And the fix didn’t cost her anything. For now the repairs are made by Salt Lake County technicians. But in the future, private garages may become options. More information on the program can be found at air.slcohealth.org, under the “Failing Vehicles” tab.