Health district considers inventory on sources of dust

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 9:41 a.m.

The Clark County Health District will consider a proposal to do a full inventory of dust-emission sources at its regular meeting Thursday.

If accepted as recommended, the proposal would pool resources of the environmental services company Kleinfelder Inc., satellite imaging giant TRW and researcher David James from UNLV. The proposal was one of five submitted to a dust-control committee comprised of industry and government representatives.

Under the proposal, Kleinfelder would provide an inventory of the sources for fine dust in the air blown up in the Las Vegas Valley. Dust is considered one of the primary air pollutants choking the valley's air.

The fine dust that is the problem is less than one-seventh of the diameter of a human hair, and the EPA believes it can cause significant breathing and health problems. The dust is known as particulate matter, or PM10 for short.

According to the Air Pollution Control division of the health district, the valley has had air in the "unhealthful" category twice this month because of excessive PM10 blown by high winds.

The Kleinfelder proposal was selected by the dust-control committee -- technically the PM Emissions Control Research Advisory Committee -- among five contenders because of the experience the three contributors have, said Michael Sword, assistant air pollution control director for the health district.

Kleinfelder has extensive knowledge of the environmental conditions in the area, TRW has broad experience preparing and analyzing satellite data, and James is an expert on wind erosion in the Las Vegas Valley.

The proposal gives the Kleinfelder-led team three months to produce the research results for the project.

Disturbed vacant land has been identified by federal and regional officials as the prime contributor to airborne dust in the valley, but the Kleinfelder proposal also will look at how much dust comes from active and inactive construction sites and paves and unpaved roads, Sword said.

The projected cost for the proposal is $118,593.

Michael Naylor, air pollution control director, said the research is an important element of forming a new dust-control plan for the region as required by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"It's not going to be a trivial task," Naylor said. "We can't stop the wind, but we can control the dust. We hope."