EPA cracks down on polluting firms

Molly Ball

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

A North Las Vegas furniture maker had to spend $241,000 to reduce smog emissions. A homebuilder had to spend $193,000 to restore wetlands in southwestern Las Vegas.

If builders and manufacturers think they can come to the Wild West atmosphere of Nevada and wreck the environment with impunity, they'd better think again.

That's the message behind an annual report from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which has stepped up enforcement of environmental laws to keep pace with the area's population boom.

"In areas of high growth, we need to make sure companies are doing what they should," said Wayne Nastri, the EPA's regional administrator for the area that includes Nevada.

In the past year, Nevada companies had to pay more than $700,000 in EPA fines -- a fivefold increase from the previous year, Nastri said. And they had to spend $2.5 million making their operations more environmentally friendly, compared with zero previously.

The money companies spend bringing themselves into line with regulations shouldn't be seen as punishment, Nastri said, but as rewarding those companies' environmentally friendly competitors.

A few big settlements from EPA actions account for most of the Nevada money totals for fiscal 2004.

The $241,000 spent by Capital Cabinet Corp. in North Las Vegas went to purchasing technology that will reduce the smog-forming compounds its plant emits by 50 tons per year, EPA reported.

That's significant in an area where air pollution is a growing concern, Nastri said.

The $193,000 to be spent by KB Home will go toward restoring wetlands at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, EPA said.

The builder was ordered to stop work at the Huntington subdivision construction site, west of Fort Apache Road, when it was found to be illegally filling tributaries leading to the Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead without a federal permit.

The agency's biggest action in Nevada in the past year came outside Las Vegas, about 60 miles to the northeast. The J.R. Simplot Co. agreed to pay $525,000 in fines and install pollution controls worth $2 million for its silica sand mining facility in Overton.

The facility's violations of the Clean Air Act were releasing an annual 150 tons of excessive sulfur dioxide, which can cause health problems, acid rain and smog, EPA said.

Some of the agency's penalties were comparatively small but still had the potential to reverberate across an industry, serving as a deterrent, Nastri said.

Other Nevada actions included: