Ozone news is both good and bad

Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Clark County air quality leaders are not celebrating news from federal environmental officials that Nevada is in compliance with the strictest standard for measuring ozone.

The reason, they say: Data for future reports looks bleak.

The Environmental Protection Agency, in a letter received by Gov. Kenny Guinn Thursday, said the state is in attainment for average ozone levels from 2000 to 2002.

However, because there were 10 days this past summer in which 27 Clark County monitoring stations exceeded the eight-hour standard, attainment most likely will not be achieved in Las Vegas for 2001 to 2003, officials said.

"We expect to be slightly over" the standard, said Carrie MacDougall, assistant director of the Clark County Air Quality Management Department.

The projected nonattainment for ozone, a summertime pollutant that occurs when things like auto emissions and paint vapors react to sunlight, will mean that the department will have to submit to the EPA a state implementation plan to control ozone, as it currently does for carbon monoxide and dust.

That could result in mandated programs such as special summer blends in gasolines.

Other restrictions, MacDougall said, could require lawn maintenance companies to use electrical equipment or retrofit gasoline-powered equipment and mandate retrofits for older power plants and diesel exhaust.

Nonmandated programs could include a campaign to encourage motorists to keep their cars finely tuned and fuel their vehicles at night to prevent the invisible gases from reacting with sunlight.

MacDougal also recommends car pools, public transit, not using cars at lunch time and turning off engines in drive-through lines.

A letter from EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri in San Francisco to Guinn, dated Wednesday, said: "The EPA agrees with your recommendation to not designate any Nevada area as nonattainment for the eight-hour ozone standard.

It continued, "However, the data indicate(s) that a monitor in Clark County is recording ambient levels of ozone that bring the area close to violating the standard."