Editorial: Air plan overhaul may help

Friday, May 12, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

Southern Nevada has had a difficult time developing an air pollution control plan that meets the Environmental Protection Agency's tough standards. To get an idea of the gravity of the situation, if local officials fail to come up with an adequate proposal soon on how to limit harmful levels of fine dust, the EPA could take over local regulatory control of development planning for the valley.

As the Sun's Launce Rake reported Thursday, a consensus appears to be emerging, however, that a single air pollution agency should be created, by bringing together all the disparate agencies that currently have jurisdiction in air pollution matters. Even many of those who have sparred in the past over air pollution issues -- builders, environmentalists and elected officials -- agree that a regional air quality control board would be preferable, which would be analogous to the Regional Transportation Commission or the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

To understand the kind of fragmentation in authority that can occur, consider the following: While the Clark County District Board of Health is the agency that approves air pollution regulations, it actually is the Clark County Planning Department that has to submit the dust controlling plans to the EPA. It's not certain that streamlining this authority into one agency will be the magic bullet that will solve all of the valley's air pollution problems. But this proposal definitely has merit and should be explored further to see if it could lead to the development of a better, more unified vision for establishing air pollution guidelines.