Dust plan will cost landowners

Tuesday, July 11, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

Clark County residents probably may not realize the personal financial impact of new dust-control regulations passed by the Clark County Health District board three weeks ago, local government officials said Monday.

Speaking before state Sen. Jon Porter's legislative subcommittee on air quality programs in the country, the health district's air quality director, Michael Naylor, warned that people with more than a half-acre of land could be required to spend thousands to keep dust from blowing off their property.

"At this point these owners may not be realizing that they will be spending, in some cases, thousands of dollars," Naylor said.

"I can imagine there will be quite an uproar from the public" when the bills come do, Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said.

Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, said he is concerned that the rules demand sacrifices from property owners without including quantified air quality benefits.

The rules, which the health board passed June 22, are a response to looming federal sanctions for failure to meet federal air quality standards in the Las Vegas Valley for fine, airborne dust. The rules are part of a larger regional dust-control plan that needs to win federal Environmental Protection Agency approval before the end of the year.

Without a dust plan in place, local transportation planning will grind to a halt. Loss of federal highway funding and, ultimately, a federal takeover of local development decisions would follow.

James said his concern is that the rules are cost-efffective. He was particularly concerned on the prospect of fencing to restrict access to frequently disturbed parcels of land in the valley.

"I don't think people are aware of the impact this fencing is going to have," James said. "I think there has been a lack of awareness of the potential impact of these regulations."

But Russell Roberts, the county government's pointman for air quality planning, said the fencing issue is probably not as important.

"I do not see ... miles and miles of fencing," Roberts said.

He said the fencing will likely be important in two situations: where property owners have applied palliatives of water or chemical solution to hold the dust down, fencing would protect that investment; fencing also might be required in high-traffic areas where the crust of soil is frequently broken.

Roberts reminded the legislators that the rules, the product of numerous workshops, hearings and public discussions over the last year, aren't amenable to second-guessing.

"The rules are adopted," he said. "They are in place."

Roberts said the rules may be too strict now, but that is because the region's plan must win EPA approval. They could be modified after one or two years, he said.

Roberts also said the rules apply to land owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management, but the federal agency has to find money to pay for implementation.

James and Titus also said they wanted to see a state presence on an oversight board of any reorganized regional pollution control agency.