Residents question pollution proposal

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 11:54 a.m.

A series of speakers sharply criticized a proposed air-pollution control plan at a public hearing Tuesday before the Clark County Commission.

The Carbon Monoxide Air Quality plan is required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which lists Clark County as a "serious non-attainment" area. The county missed an earlier deadline of May 1999, and county planners are racing to get the plan reviewed and approved by the EPA and the Nevada Environmental Protection Division before federal sanctions -- which could include loss of federal highway funds -- begin next year.

Russell Roberts, county air quality planner, told the commissioners that 86 percent of carbon monoxide polluting the Las Vegas Valley comes from automobiles. He also said that despite the rating from the EPA, the valley has seen a steady improvement in carbon monoxide levels for nearly 20 years.

County commissioners approved the draft plan submitted by the county air quality planners, but not before speakers questioned both the plan and the sincerity of the county leadership's efforts to improve air quality.

Jim Sohns, president of the Nevada Car Owners Association, said the levels of carbon monoxide traced to aircraft at McCarran International Airport were too low.

"Have you seen any vehicle that pollutes more than an airport? I haven't," he said. "It just doesn't reflect what that (carbon monoxide) inventory should be."

He pointed out that the reason the county missed the May 1999 deadline was that the carbon monoxide numbers from the local airport were not accurate.

Personal watercraft and fixed sources such as power companies and factories also produce more carbon monoxide than the plan indicates, Sohns said.

"We haven't been able to get an accurate county inventory," he said. "Everyone wants to blame the vehicles."

Representatives from the Sierra Club and Citizen Alert, two environmental groups, also questioned the accuracy of the numbers.

"The RTC (Regional Transportation Commission) population predictions are woefully lower than the population predictions of other government agencies such as the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Commission and the Southern Nevada Water District," said Peggy Pierce, a Sierra Club member. She also questioned the tons-per-day and concentrations of carbon monoxide predicted by county planners.

"Our overall concern is that the numbers in this document do not bear out the conclusions and that this plan will not genuinely impact the air quality of Clark County but will merely serve as a tool to keep business as usual humming along," Pierce said.

Others agreed that the region must do more to clean up the air.

"We've got a bad problem -- we can't breathe the air or drink the water," said Wade Haynes, who said he lives outside Boulder City. He criticized county and regional agencies for failing to take the problem seriously.

"This (plan) is a bunch of trash," he said. "This was cobbled together to get the EPA off your back. This is not going to work."

Agreed Juanita Clark from Charleston Neighborhood Preservation, "I would question: Do we really want clean air or do we really want (federal) money instead?" She accused the health district and county of "deception, fraud and running over of the law" in the preparation of the plan.

"We are not doing anything at all about actually having clean air," Clark said.

Ken Mahal, president of the Nevada Seniors Coalition, said the plan uses numbers that "are not worth the paper it's printed on."

Roberts responded that the Clark County Health District uses tools and methods prescribed by the EPA to collect data on air quality. Air Pollution Control Assistant Director Mike Sword said following the hearing that the health district uses federally approved data collection methods.

"Those numbers are certainly representative" of the valley's air quality, he said.

"That is the way the EPA tells us to do it," Commissioner Mary Kincaid told the speakers. Kincaid, who also is a member of the health district board, said the valley's air quality has improved substantially since the late 1970s, despite a doubling of the population to 1.3 million in that period.

"We have a long way to go perhaps, but we still have come a long way," she said. "We are improving, we are doing a lot about air quality, we are improving the air every day."

The plan does not contain any radical proposals for improving air quality. Instead, it calls for using cleaner-burning -- but slightly more expensive -- gasoline from November through March, requiring employers of more than 100 people to institute car-pooling plans, and boost mass-transit alternatives.

The commissioners passed the draft air quality plan, which now goes to the state and federal government for review. Only Commissioner Lance Malone voted against passing the draft.

Malone said following the public hearing that he felt that there were too many unanswered questions about the accuracy of the numbers used by the county in preparing the plan.

Should the EPA not accept the plan, sanctions could include loss of federal highway or other funds and, ultimately, in a federal takeover of air quality programs in the valley -- a takeover that could include a halt to building throughout the valley.

County staff members have said they are optimistic that the plan will be accepted and approved by the federal government before that happens.