Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cities air concerns over plan to control pollution

When the brownish haze settles over the valley and dust drifts into residents' throats, nobody disputes the quality of air Las Vegans breathe.

But the question of who will protect and enforce air quality in the Las Vegas Valley has been the subject of debate for years.

Two weeks ago Gov. Kenny Guinn tried to settle the issue by designating the Clark County Commission as the single, unified agency for air quality in Southern Nevada.

The abrupt move replaced the Clark County Health District Board as the agency that enforces air quality rules. Instead of a dozen people, including elected representatives from the cities, county and appointed health professionals, the seven commissioners will be responsible for drawing up and supervising air quality rules.

Guinn's decision made some people mad. Chief among those who object to the county's new mandate are the various cities' officials, who fear the County Commission's responsibility undermines their independence.

The officials, led by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, promise to do what they can to fight Guinn's move. Their greatest hope appears to be that they can get the governor to reverse his position, an option Guinn's staffers say is extremely unlikely.

Goodman and other officials from Las Vegas and Henderson want a seat at the table. County commissioners say they are paying for the air quality agency -- actually increasing the funding to pay for federally mandated staff increases -- so they should have the ultimate say on air issues.

Commission Chairman Dario Herrera and his six colleagues insist they are the right ones for the job. Every county resident is represented by the commission, whether they live in or out of the cities.

The stakes, especially in the long term, are huge. The county will be in charge of setting policies that help guide development, which is directly tied to air quality, throughout the region.

But Commissioner Erin Kenny, who led the effort to have Guinn designate her board as the air-quality agency, says the cities are wrong to fear county oversight.

The staff will enforce air-pollution rules and issue permits as it always has, within the limits of the law, Kenny says.

Christine Robinson, director of the health district's Air Quality Division, said Kenny is right -- to a point.

The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing the draft rules to control pollutants -- carbon monoxide, mostly from vehicles, and fine dust, produced in construction and on desert ground disturbed by people. Those rules, once approved by the EPA, can't be bent for political reasons, Robinson said.

However, commissioners will have the ability to be more strict than any EPA-approved rules. Ultimately, the policies they adopt will have an effect on development throughout the county, Robinson said.

Some view Guinn's move as a power grab by commissioners, a legislative failure or both.

Although the decision has pitted cities against the county, the issue originally placed the state at odds with the county.

Kenny chaired one committee to examine air-quality agencies, and state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, chaired a legislative committee on the same topic.

Both groups agreed that a single board would better serve the region amid threatened sanctions for failing to abide by the federal Clean Air Act. The question whether the organization should be regional or controlled by one party remained.

The Legislature tried to settle the dispute with two bills, both of which originated in the Senate's Committee on Natural Resources.

Senate Bill 536 would have created a regional air-pollution agency, and Senate Bill 357 would have raised smog fees $6 per car to cover the costs for more air-quality staff. The fees would have added about $4.5 million to the agency's $8.5 million budget.

But some in the Assembly balked at the $6 increase. When a $3 increase was offered as a compromise, legislators questioned whether any state money was needed.

Ultimately, the smog fee hike died, and Guinn vetoed the companion bill to create the agency. Guinn said creating an agency without funding it would "do more harm than good" and could jeopardize EPA compliance.

"The buzz up there was, 'You watch, if this fails, they (the county) will come up with the money'," said Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, who voted against increasing smog fees.

That, Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said, is exactly what happened. The county commissioners say that they will provide the additional $3 million or so needed for additional staff, a commitment made to the EPA in the pollution-control plans. It raises the total budget for air quality to about $12 million.

"Now suddenly they found all this money," Titus said.

Political cat fights surrounding air quality have been frequent during the past two years.

Last year, Porter requested -- some would say required -- an audit of the Air Quality Division when an outside review found "serious deficiencies" with its management.

Kenny argued the audit -- estimated by one accounting firm to cost $560,000 -- was too expensive. Lawmakers said the audit should only cost about $50,000. Porter said at the time that Kenny was using "smoke and mirror" tactics to deflect criticism from the county's handling of air-quality issues.

The audit was never done. Now, those who opposed the audit will be directly in charge of the air-quality agency.

"Do I think the county is going to solve this problem?" Titus said rhetorically. "No."

"I think this is something Erin Kenny wanted all along," she added. "I think this is another one of her efforts to get power under her control."

But why would the Republican governor give in to Kenny, a Democrat rumored to be interested in running for a statewide office?

Titus said she thinks Guinn wants to "get the monkey off of his back." If the EPA steps in, the state won't be responsible for the county's failure to meet air-quality standards.

Manendo also foresees problems with the county's planning and enforcement of air quality as a result of a problem he had near his home.

The day he returned from Carson City, Manendo said, he noticed construction crews transferring dirt to a lot near Boulder Highway and Stephanie Drive.

"It looked like a war zone," Manendo said. "People were complaining, complaining, complaining.

"It took more than three weeks of pounding from everyone from me to town advisory board members to community activists to get them to respond, and this was a county project."

Manendo said he thinks the county's lack of immediate attention and a problem at one of its own projects underscores the worries that cities have.

"Holy mackerel. The cities basically have no say-so," Manendo said.

Putting the commissioners in charge of air quality isn't the usual way other parts of the country have handled similar problems, EPA officials and observers say. "I've not heard of anything like it," said William Becker, executive director of the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials, a Washington- based group. "Usually, it's more inclusive than exclusive."

Colleen McKaughan, EPA associate director for air-quality programs in this part of the country, said direct oversight by the county isn't the usual model. But her agency isn't concerned with who is in charge.

The EPA just wants to make sure that the air is cleaned up.

"If you don't reach attainment (of federal standards), everyone is hurt," she said.

Lack of approved plans could mean federal oversight of the region, including the cities and the county. It is something that actually happened in Maricopa County, Ariz., and "people didn't like it at all," McKaughan said.

But the bigger issue for everyone is as simple as the air we breathe, she said.

"The bottom line is protecting air quality."

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