Officials say county up to tougher air standards

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 | 9:51 a.m.

A federal court has opened the door to tighter air pollution control, a decision that could lead to more oversight of local air-quality programs and more dollars going to local clean-air efforts.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court upheld federal Environmental Protection Agency rules that regulate extremely fine dust particles and ground-level ozone, two pollutants tied to human health problems.

The decision apparently closes the books on a five-year battle by the American Trucking Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others, to keep the new rules off the books.

EPA officials, from Administrator Christie Whitman to the agency's local headquarters in San Francisco, said the court's sanction is an important step toward protecting human health.

"EPA now has a clear path to move forward to ensure that all Americans can breathe cleaner air," Whitman said.

Ken Bigos, associate director of the EPA's regional air-quality agency, said the EPA is working with local and state governments to monitor the pollutants and, where necessary, respond to problems.

Carrie MacDougall, Clark County Air Quality Management assistant director, said the region, already under a mandate to clean up dust and carbon monoxide in the air, can respond to the latest EPA challenge.

Failure to stay within the limits set for the two newly regulated pollutants can lead to federal sanctions. Clark County and Nevada dodged sanctions for dust and carbon monoxide by submitting plans for their cleanup last year.

The dust plan now with the EPA targets particulate matter under 10 microns in diameter, a fraction of the width of a human hair. The new dust rules sanctioned by the court Tuesday govern even finer particles that are 75 percent smaller.

MacDougall said the good news for the county is that efforts to control other kinds of pollution also are having a positive impact on the extremely fine particles.

The court's decision to uphold EPA rules for very fine particulate matter and ozone did not come as a surprise, MacDougall said, and the county government has been working on research and control measures already.

EPA officials in San Francisco echoed MacDougall, and said they are still studying the impact the new rules will have on the U.S. Southwest.

Ozone, a principal component of smog, may be the biggest problem for Southern Nevada. Over the summer months the region has come "very, very close" to exceeding the federal eight-hour ozone standard, MacDougall said.

She said the region appears to be within the fine dust standard.

Clark County has spent about $400,000 studying the extremely fine dust targeted by the new regulations, and plans to spend a similar amount with further studies. The Air Quality Management Department plans to spend at least $400,000 studying ozone as well, MacDougall said.

Environmentalist Jane Feldman, an activist for the local arm of the Sierra Club, welcomed the federal court's action. She said the regulations could lead to cleaner air in Clark County.

"I would forecast Clark County has a couple of more challenges ahead of us," she said."