New air pollution agency recommended

Monday, June 5, 2000 | 11:31 a.m.

An independent consultant, who two weeks ago sharply criticized local pollution control efforts, has issued a sweeping recommendation for reorganization of Clark County's regional air pollution control agencies.

State Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, is scheduled to discuss the recommendations in a meeting of the Legislative Subcommittee on Air Quality Programs today. California-based Environ International, an environmental consulting company, produced the study.

The company report said it had identified "many deficiencies and suggestions for correcting the program," and recommended creating a new, unified agency out of the several local agencies that now handle air pollution rule-writing, monitoring and enforcement responsibilities.

Porter said the changes need to be made. If the local agencies responsible for air pollution control -- the Clark County Commission and the Clark County District Board of Health -- don't make organizational changes, the state will, he warned.

"I'm giving them 30 days to find solutions," he said. Porter added that he wants proposals in hand before his subcommittee meets again July 10.

The agency proposed by Environ would combine the Air Pollution Control Division of the Clark County Health District and the air quality team in the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Department. The former handles monitoring and enforcement of rules passed by the Health District board; the latter is responsible for drafting air quality goals and submitting those goals to the state and federal governments.

A board of 10 or fewer people, with state and locally elected officials from throughout the region, should govern the proposed agency, Environ said in a summary released today.

Bringing the rule-writing responsibilities together is a goal with broad support from members of the Comprehensive Planning staff, county commissioners, regulated industry, Porter and State Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who also is on the subcommittee.

The exact mechanisms of how that should be done are a much thornier issue. Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny has said she agrees with the need to bring the air pollution agencies under one umbrella, but she wants the new agency to be under the control of the county commission.

Porter and Titus, however, have said they favor a governing board with broad regional representation, including members from the various cities of the Las Vegas Valley. Structurally, that board would likely resemble the governing boards of the Regional Transportation Commission, the Clark Country Regional Flood Control District, or health board.

The new agency board recommended by Environ, however, would include only two members from the cities, one representative from the Regional Transportation Commission, two members from the private sector, a representative from the Nevada governor's office, a state legislator and the chairman of the county commission.

A third alternative, one with more county control, is likely to come from Kenny's Environmental Advisory Committee.

Porter said any change will have to avoid upsetting programs and goals established within the regional plans, now being drafted, to comply with federally mandated air pollution standards.

The county planning department, Health District staffers, local industry and others are struggling to produce a plan to bring the region into compliance with the federal standards for fine dust. The dust, the consistency of talcum powder, has been identified as a human health hazard by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The local agencies also are working to produce a plan for carbon monoxide -- a pollutant that mostly comes from car and truck tailpipe emissions. But fine dust blowing off desert land has proven to be the most difficult pollutant for local agencies to control.

A draft plan to control the dust must pass the Health District board and Clark County Commission and win approval from the EPA before January, when the first of several sanctions takes effect. Those sanctions call first for the freezing of new road-construction plans, then the loss of about $200 million a year in federal road funding and finally the takeover of local zoning and development approval by the federal government.

In the shadow of those sections, new rules and beefed-up enforcement staffing for the "dust cops" at the health district's Air Pollution Control Division are already in place or are will soon be implemented.

Environ identified those two issues as deficiencies in their four-part report on air quality problems in the Las Vegas Valley.

Michael Naylor, Air Pollution Control director, said that he and other top staff at the health district hadn't been contacted by Environ for the report.

If they had, he said, they would have found the staff drafting new, strict rules for dust from open property -- a key, missing element from the existing air pollution control regimen -- and plans for as many as 80 with implementation of the new rules next year.

The report also criticized management from both the health district and Comprehensive Planning.

Naylor said Environ, however, hadn't looked at all the evidence.

"Any time we've identified a problem or deficiency, we have fixed it as soon as we could," he said.

John Schlegel, Comprehensive Planning director, said he isn't surprised by the recommendation to merge the two agencies.

"Right now we happen to be working together pretty well, but that hasn't always been the case," he said, pointing out that both agencies are under the gun because of the federal mandate.

"We have to work together. The planning parts of this work (from Comprehensive Planning) need to be well integrated with rule-making and enforcement (from the health district)."

But pointing to the work now under way, Schlegel said making a new agency isn't the only way to solve the problem.

The Environ report said more funding is necessary is some key areas, particularly for enforcement of air pollution regulations.

But the report also said that money could be saved by merging the two agencies, making a more efficient overall operation.

Porter said he will oppose any tax increase to fund new operations.

"Right now we have to improve the efficiencies before we look at additional revenues," Porter said. "Those agencies must be accountable and responsible."