EPA calls LV pollution plan ‘inadequate’

Friday, Jan. 14, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency has determined that the new plan for controlling carbon monoxide emissions in the Las Vegas Valley doesn't fit the bill.

The agency has found the motor vehicle budgets -- or allowable levels of the gas -- "inadequate," according to a letter from David Howekamp, EPA Region 9 air division director, to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. The state agency also must approve Clark County's plan to address carbon monoxide levels.

The plan is necessary if the region is to continue to receive federal highway funding. Under federal law, an approved plan is also necessary for the region to continue to plan and do new road work after January 2001.

In a worse-case scenario, the federal government could take over local regulatory control and impose its own carbon monoxide plan on the region. The region has until the end of 2000 to get a plan approved by the EPA.

The region does not now have a plan for carbon monoxide control that has been accepted by the federal government. In a separate but related issue, the region also lacks an accepted plan to deal with airborne dust pollution.

The Clark County planning office, the Clark County Health District, the Regional Transportation Commission and other local and regional government bodies are scrambling to meet deadlines for both carbon monoxide and dust emissions.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that has been linked to health problems in low amounts. In concentrated doses, it can be deadly.

Dave Schmidt, EPA spokesman, said the most recent thumbs down from his agency represented more of a "tweaking" than sending the county back to the drawing board.

The EPA based its findings on a draft plan the agency received Sept. 28, 1999. Among the negative findings detailed in the EPA letter to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection:

Russell Roberts, county air quality planner, said the EPA's finding is frustrating but not a crushing blow to the regional efforts to draft a carbon monoxide plan acceptable to the federal agency.

"There seems to be some things we don't agree with in the letter, and some things that need to be resolved," he said. Roberts said that public comments on the plan, for example, were included.

The region has a window of about six months to get the draft plan into shape, Roberts said. While the drop-dead date for the plan is Dec. 31, 2000, the EPA will need about four months to review the plan so that it can be in place by that date, he said.

"We've got to get our act together, and done," Roberts said. "At this point, it's a small issue, but if left unresolved, it can become a big issue."