County OKs pollution credits for road paving

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 10:23 a.m.

Clark County commissioners voted this week to use proceeds from a controversial air quality program to fund air-pollution-control efforts in the county.

The commissioners authorized the sale for rights to 7,250 tons of fine-dust pollution credits the county accrued by paving dusty roads, which the county had to do because of commitments to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

But county Public Works officials said the sale, which at $300 per ton could generate $2.1 million, will help pay for more road paving, removing more polluting dust from the air.

The credits are a product of the county's controversial Emission Reduction Credit program, for years a target of bitter criticism from environmentalists.

Local officials failed this spring to act on a demand, from a committee of the Legislature, to audit the emission credit program.

Some staffers with the Air Quality Management Department said privately that they don't like the county selling pollution rights on the open market, particularly because the county is required to pave the roads anyway.

Environmentalists and outside analysts have said the gains from the credit program can't be measured in a definitive way. Advocates for the program say it helps to cut air pollution because credits are accrued at a 2-to-1 pace.

That is, if the county or a company cut 1,000 tons of dust, it could sell the rights to put 500 tons of pollution into the air. But how much pollution actually is removed has been the subject of debate.

Those who argue the program has worked to cut dust pollution include Christine Robinson, Air Quality Management director, and Cameron Harper, director of the county's road department.

Harper said paving roads is a chief priority and the credit program will help the county cut road dust.

"It is going to help air quality," Harper said. "Lots. To us, it seems to be a win-win situation. We have to get those roads paved."

The county doesn't have a choice when it comes to paving the roads.

The EPA is evaluating a local plan to control the airborne dust, also known as particulate matter or PM10. Failure to have the plan approved could lead to federal sanctions, including the loss of highway funding. Under the terms of the dust-control plan, the county has agreed to pave more than 150 miles of unpaved roads within three years.

But paying for the work is estimated to cost $25 million or $30 million, Harper said. The sale of the pollution credits would bring in money needed to pay for the road paving, he said.

He said buyers could include companies seeking to establish new electrical generating plants in Clark County.

The emission credit program, as it is now structured, isn't likely to be around for long.

Robinson, now the program's top administrator, said stakeholders from the community and affected industries will meet in October or November to hammer out changes to the program -- if it is kept alive at all.

"It will be significantly modified as of Jan. 1," she said. "I don't believe that the program operated in the past as it was intended to operate.

"While there is no doubt in my mind that the paving of unpaved roads over the years has helped to alleviate the PM10 problem in our community, I believe that it has run its course," Robinson said. "We have to look to something new."

Robinson agreed with critics who charge that pollution cuts that generate program credits are difficult to document.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who like her colleagues voted to support the county's sale of pollution credits, also agreed that the program in place is riddled with problems. But she defended the sale of the credits.

"You're talking about assets, taxpayer assets," Kenny said. "We can't just dismiss them."

The county has sold those pollution credits before, she pointed out -- although the August 1999 sale of 500 tons of dust credits was tiny compared to the new authorization.

Kenny said the reorganization of the emissions credit program may halt the county sales in the future.

State Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said she has doubts about the county's use of the program to generate income.

"I think it's going to be like robbing Peter to pay Paul," she said. "The legitimacy of that whole credit program is questionable, and that's why I think it should be audited, phased out or changed."

Titus served on the legislative committee that asked for the audit.

Jack Greco, a program critic and former vice-chairman of the county Health District Air Quality Hearing Board, which determined fines for violators of pollution rules, said he isn't happy that the county is using the program, either.

"They (county government) could make up any number they want .... It's a license to print money," he said. "I think they should suspend any activity in that program until the numbers are squared away."