County faces federal sanctions for lack of pollution control plan

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1999 | 2:39 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS - Clark County has missed a deadline for filing a plan to meet air quality standards on carbon monoxide and could lose its share of federal highway funds as a result.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Tuesday announcement came nearly four months after the May 3 deadline.

If a plan is not approved after 18 months, the Environmental Protection Agency says it could tighten controls for new industrial sources of pollution.

Then, if there is no approved plan after 24 months, the county's share of federal highway funds will be frozen.

"We didn't have all the information, the data together, to submit an appropriate plan," said Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury.

The deadline was missed because earlier this year planners realized that carbon monoxide emissions for the county airports, including McCarran International Airport, had been underestimated and would not pass muster with the EPA.

But a county official said Wednesday that a plan was released for public review two weeks ago and it should be submitted to the EPA by Oct. 1.

"We believe we will shut off the sanctions clock well within the 24 month period," said Russell Roberts, an air quality planning manager for the county.

But the agency's finding also opens the door for environmentalists to lodge formal protests that could lead to legal actions.

One local watchdog, Robert Hall, chairman of the Nevada Environmental Coalition, seized the opportunity to file an administrative protest with the EPA along with comments opposing the county's draft plan.

"Rather than actually comply with the existing control requirements, Clark County continued to rely on the EPA for extensions of time in order to delay any serious effort to actually reduce (carbon monoxide) pollution," Hall claims in his protest.

The county failed to maintain credible emissions inventories and failed to perform appropriate air pollution monitoring, Hall said.

Nevertheless, the prospects for staving off federal sanctions "is very good," according to Clete Kus, a principal planner for the county.

A draft plan is in the works that "would give us a 13 percent reduction in emissions," enough to comply with federal standards, he said.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that robs the body of oxygen. It stems from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels.