Apex valley air quality tops agenda for newly formed board

Monday, Aug. 20, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

A newly installed board governing air quality will meet for the first time Tuesday, when it will begin to wrestle with some potentially thorny issues.

The Clark County Air Quality Management Board, also known as the Clark County Commission, will consider a call for strict new regulations governing construction and industrial activity in the Apex valley, home to the Apex Industrial Park.

The Air Quality Management Department reported earlier this month that fine, airborne dust levels in Apex exceeded federal health standards on at least four occasions in the past three years. Such levels could trigger federal sanctions if local efforts to control the problem are not put in place.

Officials from the department, which began work this month with combined staffs from the county's planning agency and the Clark County Health District, have suggested putting the same regulations now in effect for the Las Vegas Valley in place for Apex.

Executives of the Apex Industrial Park, designed as a home for heavy industry 15 miles northeast of the urban area, have said they are concerned that the rules will discourage companies from moving into the park. They said they will argue against the wholesale application of local, stringent dust rules for Apex.

Christine Robinson, Air Quality Management director, said the commissioners will have other issues on their plates Tuesday. Some of those issues are administrative or technical, involving the creation of a new agency, new board and several advisory committees.

Others have serious implications for the health of everyone in the Las Vegas Valley. The new department and the county commissioners will have to address ozone pollution in the valley, Robinson said.

Ozone, a colorless, odorless relative of oxygen, can cause health problems and is a growing problem in the valley. Robinson said her agency needs to deal with the issue.

Robinson said her agency's efforts to control other types of pollution -- dust and carbon monoxide, which, like ozone, is a product of burning fossil fuels -- "are going to aid us in addressing ozone here."

Robinson said commissioners are prepared to work directly on air quality issues.

"The commissioners are up to speed on these issues," she said. "I have been spending time with each of them. They seem very excited to take on this challenge."

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said he and his colleagues know the issues are important.

"We do take it very seriously," he said. "It's a critical issue for the future of this community.

"The main issue is health and the perception of the quality of life for the people who live in the Las Vegas Valley," Woodbury said. "Air quality is right up there among a very few issues on the top of the list."

The issue of Las Vegas' air is important to state and national leaders, as well, he said.

Woodbury said Gov. Kenny Guinn and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman will meet in Carson City Tuesday morning to discuss air quality issues in Clark County.

Woodbury said he plans to brief Whitman on air quality in Southern Nevada.

"We want to impress upon her how seriously we take our responsibility," he said.