DEP car recycling program ready to roll

A program aimed at encouraging people to trade in older, high-polluting vehicles for newer, cleaner ones is “back and alive,” although there’s still little money available to fund the effort.

The Department of Environmental Protection shelved the high-pollution vehicle retirement program last fall because none of the state’s automobile recyclers had agreed to take the cars that would be collected. They said it would cost them up to $500 to drain and dispose of fluids from the old vehicles, which under the rules of the program had to be scrapped so they didn’t end up on the road again.

The department went back to the Legislature, which had approved the program last year, to amend its provisions to allow $350 per vehicle to go to the recyclers and junkyards that collect the cars. Lawmakers also expanded the program to allow cars to be collected by junkyards and automobile graveyards – not just recyclers – who follow more stringent environmental guidelines.

The change means fewer cars can be taken off the road because the DEP has a limited amount of money to fund the program.

Although this means the program will have only a “minimal environmental benefit,” it’s still a good start, said Ron Severance, who oversees the program for the DEP’s Bureau of Air Quality. The goal of the program is to reduce ozone-forming and toxic air emissions by getting old cars out of circulation.

The “worthy” program is “back and alive,” he said last week, and awaiting approval from the Board of Environmental Protection to start up again. The board is scheduled to review the revamped program at its meeting Thursday. If it gets a green light, Severance said, people could start getting vouchers next month.

When DEP first began the program last November, it collected the names of people interested in participating. It has collected more than 1,000 names so far.

Under the amended program, the department has enough money to offer vouchers to the first 66 people on the list. The department has only $110,000 available for the program. The money comes from fines collected by the department. Those paying the fines, however, must stipulate that they want the money to go toward the high-pollution vehicle retirement program. The department may only ask entities to consider designating the money to be used for that purpose; they may not encourage companies and individuals to do so, Severance said. However, he said, the state’s environmental groups could encourage companies facing big fines to put the money into this program.

In October, Severance said the last two companies asked to put their fine money into the program declined to do so.

Asked if any more money could be obtained from the Legislature for the program, Severance said there was “not a prayer” that could happen.

“You play the cards that are dealt you,” he said of the program’s going ahead without much money.

The program was meant as a way to encourage people driving pre-1987 cars, which pollute much more than their modern counterparts, to give them up in exchange for money toward the purchase of post-1996 models that are certified as having low emissions.

Voucher amounts range from $2,000 for pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles with 8-cylinder engines to $1,500 for pickups or SUVs with 6-cylinder engines to $1,000 for any other pre-1987 vehicle.

The vehicle that is traded must be scrapped and the person seeking a voucher must show documentation to that effect.

Severance said Maine’s program is the only one to offer incentives for buying newer low-emissions vehicles, not just encourage scrapping old cars. As such it is being watched by other states considering similar action, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the state’s largest environmental group which had championed the effort, said she had several unanswered questions about the revamped program and wasn’t able to comment on it.