Feds give warning for road projects

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 11:11 a.m.

Lack of compliance with federal environmental clean air regulations could stop all new road-building and improvement projects in Clark County within 14 months, federal and regional officials warned Monday.

The specter of a halt to roadwork throughout the region arises because of the county's nonconformance with Environmental Protection Agency requirements, specifically in the areas of fine dust and carbon monoxide.

The officials' warning means that the 24-month timeline for a federal highway funding cutoff -- an EPA timeline widely referred to in public discussions and in the media on the air pollution-roadway conundrum -- actually would be cut nearly in half.

The reason, federal and regional officials agree: The RTC won't have a regional transportation plan in place. The plan can't be formed until the region has companion plans to deal with dust and carbon monoxide.

The transportation plans "have to mesh with the air quality plans," Randy Bellard, Federal Highway Administration planner in Reno, said. "There's the rub.

"If you do not have a plan, you do not have federal funds. Period," he said.

The county is in the serious category for violating both standards. Most of the dust problem is caused by construction and dust blown from disturbed vacant lands, local and federal officials believe. Most of the carbon monoxide problem comes from emissions from cars, trucks and other engines.

The region needs to have approved plans in place for both categories before the transportation plans can be updated. Those air quality plans would provide a "budget" saying how much carbon monoxide and dust would be allowed in the air.

Without those budgets, the Regional Transportation Commission can't develop new roadway plans, said Jerry Duke, RTC principal planner.

The federal regulations also require the region to halt development of other road projects, although it would likely take a civil suit to stop projects funded locally or by the state, Bellard said.

Roadway projects that aren't included in the already approved Regional Transportation Plan "would come to a screeching halt," he said.

"They're only going to advance projects on the existing, approved plan," said Russell Roberts, Clark County air quality planner.

Some of the high-profile projects that likely wouldn't be immediately affected include work to extend the Las Vegas Beltway and widening of U.S. 95 and Interstate 15.

Officials with the county Public Works Department said the road-plan cutoff probably won't affect any major projects, at least within the next 18 months.

"We don't foresee any major problems at this time because all our major projects are on the approved (regional transportation plan)," said Bobby Shelton, Public Works spokesman.

Officials with the city of Las Vegas' planning department said they aren't sure what road projects might be derailed by the expiration of the regional transportation plan.

Bellard and local officials from the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Department and the Regional Transportation Commission emphasized that the roadwork halt is a worst-case scenario. The local agencies are working to get both dust and carbon monoxide plans approved before the cut-off would take place.

The Regional Transportation Commission recently issued a public notice calling for comment on two options for future transportation plans. One option proposed new programs; the second option up for consideration essentially would constrain the RTC to follow already approved plans for current and future projects.

Although the public notice called for comment on both, the only viable option is the second, which locks the RTC into already approved projects, Duke said.

RTC and county planners hope and expect that the halt to development of new road projects is only temporary.

Roberts echoed earlier statements that the EPA will approve the region's air quality plans for both carbon monoxide and dust before any actual road projects are affected.

"We will be in a position early in year 2001 where the RTC can move forward with whatever new plan," he said.

Nevertheless, "the next six months are critical," Roberts said. Officials from the county and RTC said the transportation plan cutoff only emphasize how important it is to get air-pollution plans developed and approved by the federal government in a swift manner.

One element of the dust problem should be addressed Thursday. The Clark County Health District's Board of Health is expected to select a company to inventory the amount of so-called "disturbed vacant land."

EPA officials have said that no dust-control plan will pass muster unless the county addresses the issue of dust coming from vacant lands in and around the urban perimeter of the Las Vegas Valley; however, county planners are still guessing how much disturbed vacant land is out there.

On windy days, 80 percent of the fine dust choking the Las Vegas Valley can come from disturbed vacant land. That land can include graded property and acreage on which vehicles have driven over.

Health district officials, county planners and others from affected agencies have said a fix to the problem -- essentially treating the land to form a crust and keep the dust from flying off -- will be expensive. But they don't have a fix on how expensive that fix will be without an inventory of the amount of affected land.