Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.
Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of a Clark County air pollution bill may lead to a "catastrophic" series of federal sanctions, the director of the regional air pollution agency said Wednesday.
Guinn said he vetoed Senate Bill 536, which would have created a single air pollution control agency in the county, because the Legislature failed to pass a bill to finance the new organization.
Air Quality Division Director Christine Robinson warned that failure to fund pollution-control staff could cripple some of the region's most important industries.
The issue of a single agency versus the two principal agencies that handle air pollution is irrelevant, she said.
But the Legislature's failure to approve a requested annual fee for local smog checks imperils two plans the Environmental Protection Agency is evaluating. Without EPA approval of those plans or a wholesale change of federal law, a series of sanctions will begin in 18 months, officials say.
"A new agency, no agency, that is not the critical community concern here," Robinson said. "It is our ability to fund air quality programs."
The sanctions, mandated by law if the plans are not approved, include the loss statewide of an estimated $170 million a year in federal highway funds. Also lost will be millions of dollars for wastewater treatment plants and other infrastructure, and the application of stringent and costly control measures on industry.
Two severely affected industries would be home construction and power generation, she said. Home builders, although generally opposed to government regulations, lobbied for the air quality issues locally and in Carson City.
In the last two years as the issue moved through local agencies and plans were submitted to the government, home builders had said that failure to get EPA approval for the plans would cripple economic development.
"I don't think the folks in the state Legislature were thinking clearly," said Mark Doppe, chief executive at Carina Corp. and president of the Southern Nevada Association of Homebuilders. "It's not just our industry that suffers."
The potential effects were noted by Guinn in his veto, which he said had to be done because the Legislature failed to fund the program.
In his veto message, the governor said failing to provide the money "has the potential to do more harm than good. I cannot support the creation of an agency without a proper source of funding to accomplish its mission."
This could "result in substantial fines and loss of federal funding," Guinn said.
It was not immediately clear where the lack of funding leaves the two air pollution plans. EPA officials did not return telephone calls today.
Both plans are the products of months of work by the two agencies and received support from local governments throughout the Las Vegas Valley. One plan promises to control carbon monoxide, the other fine dust.
Clark County does not meet the federal health standards for either pollutant, both of which are tied to illnesses, especially for infants, the elderly and those with impaired health.
Part of the plans submitted to the EPA this year and late last year include increases in staff size to monitor and enforce new air quality rules.
"If we can't show them (EPA official) that we can implement the plan, we are at risk of them not approving the plan at all," Robinson said.
The funding died during legislative jockeying in Carson City.
The Senate approved a plan to permit the county to charge a fee up to $6. The Assembly agreed to a $3 fee and said the other $3 could be imposed with voter approval. But the Assembly bill also said that if the voters turn down the additional $3 fee than the first fee also disappears, leaving the county with no extra funds.
The Senate and Assembly deadlocked, and the bill died in conference committee.
The original bill would have provided about $5 million per year. Robinson said the minimum needed to meet the EPA commitments is about $3 million.
Robinson said she is certain that the Legislature will not discuss the funding again this year. That leaves a state-enabled funding solution until at least 2003, well after sanctions would have taken their bite.
Local agencies will have to find the money, Robinson and Doppe agreed.
"I don't think the county has any choice now. It has to be funded," Doppe said.
"I have to have faith that the community will step up to the plate, including local governments, to meet the commitments we have made," Robinson said. "The community is not going to allow air quality programs to fail.
"The alternative is catastrophic and, frankly, unacceptable."
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