County puts dust control on hold

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999 | 10:51 a.m.

Those hoping to get relief from airborne dust by early next year may have to wait at least a few months longer.

County Commissioner Erin Kenny, a member of the Clark County Health District board, said the board informally agreed to push back the timeline for implementation of new dust-control rules by two to three months. The health district is responsible for implementing and enforcing air pollution rules.

While the initial process called for public hearings in January, those hearings now likely will be held in March. Kenny, health district and county planners disagree on when formal adoption of the rules would follow, but they agree that the rules will probably be in place by the end of next year.

The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association took credit for derailing fast-track development and adoption of dust-control regulations in its most recent edition of Silver Spike, the association's newsletter.

The association "has convinced Clark County officials to scrap plans for fast-track adoption of dust-control regulations by the end of the year," the newsletter said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency in September issued a formal ruling that the county's dust-control regulations, developed in 1997, were inadequate for controlling "particulate matter 10," or very fine airborne dust. The agency is expected to initiate a sanction timeline in January, after which it can freeze millions of dollars of highway funding.

The federal agency also could take control of county agencies, potentially freezing all new development.

"We have not received any official notification of any postponement of the implementation of dust-control regulations," David Schmidt, an EPA spokesman from the agency's regional headquarters in San Francisco, said. "If postponement is being considered, we urge that the health district move forward as quickly as possible, rather than delay it."

One of the major problems with the existing county rules is that they do not control dust emissions from disturbed vacant lands. Winds blow tons of dust off those lands, which are scattered throughout the urbanized area of the Las Vegas Valley and on the rapidly expanding perimeter of the developed area.

In response to those concerns, the Clark County Health District and Clark County environmental planners proposed regulations based on rules in Maricopa County, Ariz. The Arizona county, like Clark County, is in the "serious" category for dust violations -- but there the federal government has already stepped in, enforcing stringent dust-control rules.

The health district board in September approved the process for adopting new dust-control regulations on a fast track, but the home builders association -- as it did in 1997 -- objected to the focus on disturbed vacant land. The rules now in effect mostly ignore dust from vacant land, dirt parking lots and unpaved roads.

The association argued that the proposed rules, which would have required treatment of desert land that has been graded or otherwise had the ground crust broken, would be expensive. The draft plan also could require fencing or other methods for keeping vehicles off vacant land.

The expense wouldn't only be for developers, but also for landowners throughout the county and for the federal and local governments. County planners put a conservative estimate of $5 million to $7 million for treating county land alone.

The association expressed its concerns at a series of workshops in September and October and directly to county commissioners and health board members Kenny and Mary Kincaid, Terri Barber, deputy director of the home builders association, said.

Kenny took the lead in scrapping fast-track adoption of disturbed vacant land regulations, Barber said.

"She seemed very responsive," she said.

Kenny had championed the fast-track process in September, arguing that delaying action on disturbed vacant land endangered federal highway funding. She said Monday that pushing the timetable for the new rules back two to three months wasn't unreasonable and didn't represent a retreat from hers and the health district's commitment to control dust from vacant land.

Kenny said the timetable "is still a rapid process."

"It is important that we go as fast as we can," Kenny said.

She said public hearings could be held in February or March.

Health district and county staff members, however, said the hearings and formal adoption will probably come later than Kenny predicted.

Michael Naylor, air pollution control director for the health district, said hearings would likely be in the summer or early fall. Issues to be resolved include just how much vacant land would be governed under the rules, where that land is and who owns it, Naylor said.

He said his staff initially thought that hearings could be held in January, but staff members quickly realized that timetable "was far too ambitious."

"Before we have the hearings, we want a better estimate of the number of acres involved and who the landowners are," Naylor said. "I think we're better off covering all the bases than trying to adopt a half-baked rule."

The health board is likely to hire a company at its Dec. 18 meeting to use satellite imagery to identify the amount and the owners of vacant land in the valley, Naylor said.

Russell Roberts, the county's chief air pollution planner, said technical studies will take most of next year to complete.

"These issues take time to deal with," Roberts said. "I think with just the physical weight of the work that has to be done, we're not going to be ready with the plan by September of 2000 at the earliest."

He said that still represents an "optimized scenario," and said it was important to move as quickly as possible to avoid sanctions and third-party lawsuits and to clean up the air.