Air quality improving throughout the valley

Jennifer Shubinski

Friday, Jan. 6, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

Richmond American Homes of Nevada Inc. 30

D.R. Horton Inc. 23

Beazer Homes of Nevada 22

U.S. Home Corp. 20

7-Eleven Inc. 14

Las Vegas Paving Corp. 12

Southwest Homes Ltd. 11

KB Home Nevada Inc. 10

Woodside Homes of Nevada Inc. 9

Promontory Partners LLC 7

Although the Las Vegas Valley is often blanketed by an orange haze of dust, it is no longer so thick that it violates federal pollution levels. The valley's air has not exceeded federal limits for airborne dust, known as particulates, since May 2004. Before then, the valley breached the standards several times a year.

"Larger developers are putting more money into dust control than they used to," said Bob Folle, compliance manager for the county's Air Quality and Environmental Management Department. "Over the last several years it has been remarkably better. Last year was a really good year, not to say we've had no notices of violations or penalties."

The county also has stepped up its efforts, putting more inspectors in the field and instructing them to enforce rules rigorously, Folle said.

Even so, the homebuilding industry continues to stir up huge volumes of dust. County records show that seven of the top 10 violators are homebuilders. "Unfortunately, there are some people who just aren't getting it yet," Folle said.

Through November, the most recent statistics available, the county issued 332 citations and collected $1.54 million in penalties. The violations included failure to obtain a dust control permit, working outside the permit boundaries, failure to comply with a corrective order and failure to clean up mud or dirt tracked off a job site.

"In perspective, some companies are so large they may have 30 active sites at any one time," Folle said. "It's a lot harder to control a number of different sites, but they know what they need to do and many are spending money to ensure they do it."

Folle pointed to homebuilder Centex Corp. as an example of a company that vastly improved its performance. Centex had been among the worst polluters. Last month, it received the county's Crystal Air Award.

"We turned around the worst culprit and they ended up winning the award," Folle said. The company hasn't had any air quality violations for more than a year.

Dan Tecca, Centex environmental compliance manager, said the company stepped up training of its staff and its contractors. It also brought in consultants to conduct daily reviews.

"Centex's policy is that we want to be the forerunner in the Las Vegas Valley on environmental issues," he said. The most-cited violator in 2005 was Richmond American Homes, one of the valley's top three homebuilders by volume.

Chris Mandarich, regional president of Nevada for Richmond, said through a spokeswoman that the company takes environmental standards very seriously.

"Our Las Vegas division became aware of these dust issues early in the year and worked with the county to develop an approved dust mitigation plan," according to a company statement. "Since implementing this plan in all of our Las Vegas subdivisions, dust issues have significantly decreased."

D.R. Horton was No. 2 on the list with 23 violations in 2005. Division President Jim Frasure said the company is a target for dust violations because of its projects that encompass a large amount of land -- one 140-acre parcel and another 240-acre parcel.

"They like to come and warn us a lot," he said. "We have dust monitors on all of our sites and hired in-house dust monitors to make sure all the people are compliant."

Frasure said the company's fines are down 90 percent from 2004 levels.

Officials with Beazer Homes, which was No. 3 among the Top 10 dust polluters in 2005, could not be reached for comment.

Beazer was fined $100,000 by the county air quality department last year for various violations in 2003 and 2004. The county suspended half of the fine because the company made improvements.

The 10 companies were assessed more than $483,000 in penalties.

Jennifer Shubinski can be reached at 259-8832 or at js@lasvegassun.com.<.em >