Panel must find way to control dust in valley

Monday, Jan. 10, 2000 | 10:17 a.m.

High-Powered Committee

Here are the names and affiliations of the 21-member Environmental Advisory Committee:

A ripple of fear was evident as the high-powered members of a new advisory committee on pollution met for the first time last week.

The 21-member Environmental Advisory Committee -- composed primarily of government officials, developers and business representatives -- seemed acutely aware that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has flunked the county's plans to control fine dust and carbon monoxide pollution and that an environmental watchdog group is threatening to sue over the Las Vegas Valley's dirty air.

The fear of the worst consequence -- a halt to all Las Vegas construction -- threaded its way through discussions of the more immediate danger: a possible disruption of more than 250 public road projects within a year if Clark County fails to get a new plan approved by the EPA. The committee met formally for the first time Thursday at the Clark County Government Center.

County Commissioner Erin Kenny won formal recognition from the commission last week for the advisory committee, which has been meeting informally for a year seeking ways to clear the air of serious problems from dust disturbed by construction activity and carbon monoxide spewing from car, truck and other engine exhausts.

Committee Chairman Dan Van Epp said he hopes to produce a strategic plan for the County Commission by May that will include options for meeting the clean air deadlines as well as to inform and educate Las Vegas residents on the seriousness of the problem.

The committee can help explain to the community what needs to be done and how much it will cost, Van Epp said. "We want people to understand this issue not only for the health of the individual, but the health of the economy," he said.

The measures the EPA may require could make clearing the air very expensive. For example, an estimated 80 percent of airborne dust comes from construction activities. Applying a chemical control to keep that dust down could cost between $300 to $675 an acre, a cost likely to be passed on to home buyers.

The EPA's deadline for a carbon monoxide control plan is Dec. 31, and a date of Dec. 31, 2001, looms for a dust control plan, Russell Roberts, county air quality planner, said. The county expects to ask for a 5-year extension to solve the dust problem, he said.

In addition to federal sanctions, an environmental watchdog group has threatened to sue to stop the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion and a proposed monorail project. The threat of a lawsuit could halt all development in the valley, not just public roads.

"The Nevada Environmental Coalition could take that step tomorrow," longtime political powerhouse Bob Broadbent said. Broadbent has been leading the effort to run a private monorail from the MGM Grand hotel-casino down the Las Vegas Strip to the Convention Center and agreed to serve on the advisory committee.

If the coalition files suit, "it could shut down everything in Las Vegas," Broadbent said, including new hotel construction.

Although everyone talks about solving the area's air pollution woes, even the Nevada Legislature failed to act on controlling diesel engine exhausts, Broadbent noted. Instead, lawmakers ordered a two-year study. "If we're talking about education, we need to talk about educating a few legislators," he said.

Richard Moore, president of the Community College of Southern Nevada, said the committee faces a huge education gap. "You're going to have to teach me and 1.3 million people living here what the problem is," he said.

"Is this it?" Moore asked, waving the committee's one-sentence mission statement in the air in front of him. "I don't think any solutions we come up with will do anything until we get 1.3 million people with us."

The committee agreed to review a list of projects that would be jeopardized if the federal deadlines are not met, a summary of local government proposals to clean the air and a plan to meet federal deadlines.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the monorail project went to U.S. District Court late Thursday and sued to be removed from the environmental coalition's pending lawsuit.

Attorney Greg Jensen, also a committee member, said the monorail is part of the solution to cleaner air. "I've contributed to the problem by representing a number of resorts out there," he said. "Now it's time I become part of the solution."