Valley set to meet air quality standards

Jace Radke

Thursday, Dec. 27, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

Despite the hazy cloud of smog that drapes the winter sky, the Las Vegas Valley is set to meet key federal clean-air requirements for two dangerous pollutants, Clark County officials said.

Aided by smog tests, cleaner burning fuels and dust controls, air quality officials have driven down the amount of poisonous carbon monoxide and dust in the air. If the numbers continue through Monday, the county will be off the Environmental Protection Agency's list of troubled areas that fail to meet the standards for the two pollutants.

Dennis Ransel, an analyst with the county's air quality management team, called it a "success story."

"The crux of the problem we face is the perception that there is this brown cloud out there, and it's not going away," Ransel said. "The cloud issue is a concern, but at the same time we have made strides in dealing with pollutants that the public doesn't see."

The county constantly measures for pollutants including carbon monoxide and PM 10, dust particles about as big as the width of a human hair. Under the EPA's clean-air rules, the county can get off the list if it doesn't exceed monitoring standards for the pollutants.

Since 1999, the county hasn't recorded a day where the air quality exceeded standards for carbon monoxide, an invisible poisonous gas that is mainly created by automobiles, Clark County Air Quality Project Manager David Hoch said.

Carbon monoxide slows the blood's ability to transfer oxygen to the body and can result in heart and breathing problems.

"It's like secondhand smoke," Hoch said. "You won't drop dead from it in two days, but it does cause chronic problems. The elderly, asthmatic and the young are especially sensitive."

PM 10 is the larger of two kinds of dust particles measured, and it's created by work at construction sites and by wind whipping up dust in vacant lots and roadways.

PM 10 is measured on both hourly basis and a daily basis, and the county hasn't met standards since 1993, Ransel said.

"We haven't had any exceedances of the hourly standard and should move to attainment there after Dec. 31," Ransel said. "We have had four exceedances of the 24-hour standard this year, and we hope to reach compliance there by 2006."

The county is already in compliance with the nearly microscopic dust particles known as PM 2.5, which make up the majority of the haze that sometimes hangs over the valley.

To the naked eye, the numbers don't mean much. There's still the big brown cloud, but what you see isn't always what you get with air quality in the Las Vegas Valley, Ransel said.

"It's safe to say that if we weren't doing as well as we are with the PM 10 the brown cloud could be bigger," Ransel said.

Russell Merle, an air quality planner with the county, said that reaching attainment for PM 10 and carbon monoxide means that the quality of air is slowly getting better, even if the brown cloud seems to point to the opposite conclusion.

"In the '80s when you were caught in gridlock here it was like being behind a diesel, and you could really feel your eyes start to water," Merle said. "Now you only get that if you're actually behind a diesel."

While Merle has noticed an improvement, Dr. Jim Christensen, a local allergy and asthma care specialist, said that Las Vegas remains a busy town for respiratory problems.

"When you combine the pollutants with the heavy amounts of tobacco smoke it's a recipe for higher instances of respiratory problems," Christensen said. "Moving into compliance with the EPA standards is a step in the right direction, and anything that we do to improve air quality will help those with breathing problems."

The county has brought the pollutants under standards with vehicle smog tests and stringent dust control rules, which require developers to put down water, gravel or chemicals on construction sites to limit the amount of dust being kicked up.

Smog tests and oxygenated gas -- a cleaner burning fuel -- have been implemented to cut carbon monoxide levels, and the turnover from older cars to cleaner-running newer cars has also played a part, Hoch said.

"The achievement for us is that we have seen these pollutants drop, and over the last 10 years our population has increased 86 percent," Hoch said.

Once the county meets the EPA standards, officials will be required to develop a plan to manage pollutants. The maintenance plans will continue the smog tests, dust controls and other measures, and will also look toward alternative controls, Ransel said.

"We've done about all we can to keep the cars regulated, but more stringent smog tests could be a possibility," Ransel said. "Natural gas vehicles, CAT buses, tele-commuting and car-pooling are all things we have to look at more. The monorail would be a big help."