Monday, April 13, 1998 | 10:12 a.m.
Air pollution will become a year-round problem for Southern Nevadans unless officials act to bring in cleaner gasoline for millions of motor vehicles.
The solution, however, may clear the air while threatening water in the Las Vegas Valley.
The Clark County Health District is proposing to bring California reformulated gasoline to the Las Vegas Valley by May 1999, said Michael Naylor, director of the Health District's Air Pollution Control Division.
The Health District is sponsoring a workshop beginning at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at McCarran International Airport for public comment on the proposal.
Ozone has not been a problem in Southern Nevada which has a serious pollution threat in winter due to high levels of carbon monoxide and dust.
However this year the federal Environmental Protection Agency changed the yardstick for measuring ozone, Naylor said.
If the new standard had been in effect last summer, nine unhealthy days of ozone would have been chalked up against Clark County, Naylor said. The growth is causing more pollution in the Las Vegas Valley. Two pollution monitors in the rapidly growing northwest exceeded the ozone limit of 80 parts per billion in each liter of air last year.
"Unless the wind blows every day this summer, the valley will have an ozone problem," Naylor said, adding the violations could mean a loss of millions of dollars in highway funds and stricter emission standards.
California has already mandated the complex new gasoline formula for its 24 million cars. It switched to clean-burning fuel in June 1996.
Naylor said by using California-style gas, the levels of carbon monoxide, dust and ozone will improve. The benefits, however, go far beyond Nevada. Cleaner air here means better viewing in the Grand Canyon, Naylor said.
The new fuel could increase gas prices an estimated 6 cents a gallon for local motorists. That means a motorist using 15 gallons a week would pay an extra 90 cents per week for the new gasoline.
California gasoline contains the additive MTBE -- methyl tertiary butyl ether -- a synthetic chemical used as a blending agent in fuel to reduce smog. The U.S. Geological Survey discovered MTBE in samples of Las Vegas and Reno groundwater not used for drinking.
Jack Greco, president of the Nevada Gasoline Retailers Association, is asking why Clark County is considering a fuel switch when the improved gasoline contains an additive known as MTBE. Currently, Nevada gas retailers use ethanol at 9 percent by volume to boost oxygen for wintertime fuel.
Better California fuel containing MTBE won't meet the stricter wintertime standards in Southern Nevada, so gas suppliers will have to offer two kinds of fuel. MTBE and ethanol don't mix.
"Why isn't Nevada looking at its own problems and not following somebody else's solution?" Greco asked.
In states such as Alaska and Montana, MTBE was excluded from gasoline because people complained it caused headaches and irritated their noses and throats.
Although Greco owns an ARCO gas station in Las Vegas and ARCO is the biggest MTBE producer in the world, he doesn't agree that MTBE should be used here.
Refiners are studying MTBE's affects on health, Greco said, and ARCO has spent $500,000 already. MTBE not only threatens the air, it also has been found in California's drinking water. Health effects from the additive are unknown in humans but MTBE has been reported to damage livers and kidneys in animals.
"It will be interesting to see what they do," Greco said of the Health District's efforts to win approval for the new gas from the District Board of Health in May.
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