EPA set to OK plan to improve valley air quality

Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.

Federal approval of plans to clean up local air could come as soon as today, officials for Clark County's Air Quality Management Department say.

The expected approval completes a critical step in a yearslong process of controlling carbon monoxide and fine dust in the Las Vegas Valley, Carrie MacDougall, air quality assistant director, said.

Clark County had faced potential sanctions, including the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for highway construction and other local programs, if it did not submit and get approval for the plans.

County officials submitted their plan to control carbon monoxide, a potentially toxic gas produced by cars and other combustion engines, in August 2000. The plan includes regular smog checks, cleaner-burning gas and more mass transit options for residents. In July 2001 the department submitted the plan to control fine dust -- particulate matter under 10 microns in diameter, called PM10 by regulators.

The plans are required by the federal government under the Clean Air Act, which sets health-based standards for a number of air pollutants.

Although awaiting federal Environmental Protection Agency approval, the plans have been in place for months, MacDougall said.

"We've already begun to implement what was in those plans, so air quality is already getting better," she said.

Carbon monoxide levels have actually been improving for years, she said.

"We've got three years now without a carbon monoxide exceedance," MacDougall said.

Controlling the dust has been more difficult.

"We've also gone three years without exceeding the annual particulate matter standard," she said. But the area has exceeded the daily limit for particulate matter seven times this year.

Local officials have asked the EPA to forgive four of those exceedances because they occurred during high-wind days, which can blow desert grit through the area. The EPA can forgive exceedances caused by nature.

If the federal agency approves the requested waivers, the area would have three dust exceedances for the year -- one fewer than last year, MacDougall said.

"When we are doing everything we need to do, (everything) that we can do, there are allowances for that," Christine Robinson, air quality director, said last week.

Robinson on Tuesday told the Nevada Environmental Commission, the state's highest water and air quality administrative board, that the valley is home to the "most stringent dust regulations in the country."

The program to control dust had led to paving half of the unpaved roads in the valley and inspections of 2,400 vacant land parcels and 3,700 construction sites, she said. The department has ordered corrective actions at hundreds of those sites, she added.

Still, the department does not expect to reach full compliance with the federal dust standards until at least 2004, and possibly not until 2006.

EPA spokeswoman Lisa Fasano said her agency's formal approval of the two air pollution control plans is a recognition that the regional governments are on the right track.

"Clark County has put a lot of work into these plans and developing strategies that will help clean the air," Fasano said. "This means we've reviewed the plans and found that they comply with the Clean Air Act, and that we believe they meet all the necessary steps to bring clean air to the residents of Clark County.

"This is a first step," she added. "Now Clark County will continue to implement these measures."

Not everyone is as upbeat about the region's air pollution problems.

"They are probably painting a rosier picture than what we should hope for," said Jane Feldman, an activist for the local arm of the Sierra Club. "I don't see the dust cloud hanging over the city getting any smaller.

"As long as we keep breathing all the dust in the air, we're not going to see an improvement in our asthma rates," she said.

A study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last year and based on 1998 data found that Nevada had the highest rate of asthma in the country, with 7.2 percent of the population affected.

The study did not identify causes for the asthma rate, but experts have implicated the state's high smoking rate, air pollution and other factors.

"There are people at the county and at air quality management working very, very hard, and they are working with passion and integrity, but I'm just not sure it's all that rosy," Feldman said.

But Mark Green, an associate research professor at Desert Research Institute who studies air quality and other pollution issues, said the Las Vegas air is better than it used to be.

Carbon monoxide appears to be under control locally, thanks in large part to the fact that today's car engines burn much more cleanly than they once did, he said.

But dust remains a problem, he said.

"PM10 is a whole other story," he said. "They do seem to be doing more watering on construction sites and so on, but they seem to have a long way to go on that.

"I think they have things in the plan that if they were enforced to the fullest extent would help, but I don't see that happening," Green said. "There's a lot of dust out there that's not being controlled. Until that happens, I think we will continue along without attainment (of the federal standards) indefinitely."

New federal standards for ozone, another pollutant, could also affect the region, Green said. For several years the area has been just at the borderline of the ozone standards.

MacDougall said her department is aware of ozone issues, but the area so far is in compliance with the federal standards.

MacDougall said her agency also is aware that air pollution will be a continuing challenge. Growth of the local population means more people, putting more pollution into the air.