Beazer fined by air quality officials

Jennifer Shubinski

Friday, March 11, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

Beazer Homes Nevada was fined $100,000 by the Clark County Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management for various dust violations that occurred in 2003 and 2004 -- but the county agency suspended half of the assessment because the company has made "quite a turnaround" in compliance.

The county's air quality department fined the home building company for numerous violations over the past two years ranging from failure to obtain a dust control permit for some work sites, working outside an issued dust control permit, not complying with a corrective order and for failure to clean up mud or dirt that is tracked off a job site.

A hearing officer fined the company $100,000 for the violations, but suspended half of the fine for nine months. If Beazer Homes does not have any violations within the next nine months, the suspended amount will be waived.

Gary Miller, a compliance supervisor, said Beazer Homes officials came down to the county to discuss the problems and find out what they could do.

"It came from the top of the company down," Miller said. "It's been quite a turnaround with compliance of dust control regulations."

Leslie Erbland, Beazer Homes Nevada vice president of sales and marketing, said the company has hired civil engineering firm Converse Consultants to help it develop a construction and dust permit control program.

"They will conduct on site inspections and will have personnel monitor dust control conditions on a regular basis," she said. "They are also going to conduct and develop a dust control manual for Beazer superintendents."

The firm also will provide semi-annual status reports to the health district, she said.

Miller said $50,000 of the total fine was suspended because of the efforts Beazer Homes has made to comply with dust control rules.

"Putting plans together is not cheap, and the penalties were reduced some to take that into consideration," he said.

Beazer Homes is not the only home building company hit with fines in the last seven months.

At the same hearing that Beazer was levied a fine, 14 of the 22 companies on the agenda for violations were homebuilders or were contractors working on residential sites. Fines against those companies ranged from $500 assessed to Massengale Construction Co. Inc. to $17,500 assessed to Southwest Homes LTD.

In September, Centex Homes was fined $116,000 -- none of which was waived or suspended -- for numerous dust violations, Miller said.

"Our goal here is to be in compliance with the regulations," Miller said. "We are working very proactive with the builders to educate them and for them to comply with the regulations."

Miller said the most frequent violation companies run into is either working outside a dust control permit or not having a dust control permit to begin with. Working outside a permit means activity, such as unloading of equipment and even improper parking by employees, outside the boundaries of the permit, he said.

Another common violation is track out, when a truck carries out mud or dust from the construction site on its wheels to the street, Miller said.

Miller said more dust control staff have been in the field as of January 2004 in an effort to maintain compliance with federal standards of particulate matter in the air. The county must comply with federal standards by the end of 2006, otherwise more stringent control measures will be put in place, he said.

"Last year and this year and next year are very critical that everyone comply with the regulations and if we don't, everyone will pay the consequences," Miller said.