Local mayors oppose new EPA rules on ozone

By Megan Messerly

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The mayors of several cities in Southern Nevada are calling President Barack Obama’s proposed ozone standards “stringent,” “harmful” and “unfair.”

In a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman argued that the ozone standards would unnecessarily burden the city as it continues its post-recession economic recovery by limiting commercial and industrial activities. Goodman sent the letter on behalf of the mayors of Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and Mesquite.

The five mayors joined Gov. Brian Sandoval, the Nevada Mining Association and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection in critiquing the standards, which would tighten restrictions on air pollution by cutting ground-level ozone standards. The regulations will be announced by Oct. 1. The allowable concentration of ozone in the air is currently 75 parts per billion. Scientific advisors at the EPA have recommended lowering that figure to between 60 and 70 parts per billion.

More stringent standards would stifle economic growth in southern Nevada, Goodman said, making it more difficult to attract businesses, create jobs and pay local government employees: “Right now, communities across the country like Southern Nevada are in need of more robust economic growth unencumbered by increase regulatory requirements."

The EPA last issued ozone standards in 2008. However, programs to comply with those standards have not been fully implemented, Goodman said, making it difficult to assess their effectiveness. Goodman asked the EPA to delay issuing new standards until the 2008 standards are fully implemented. Goodman also called the proposed standards “unfair” to communities in which ground-level ozone is transported regionally from other areas and not generated locally.

Earlier this year, Sandoval raised concerns that standards developed in the east were not always appropriate to the west. Should the EPA establish stricter ozone standards, “implementation in the West would require a better understanding of the role contributory factors — including factors unique to the region — play in this process,” Sandoval wrote as chairman of the Western Governor’s Association in a letter to the EPA.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, support the stricter standards. “The devastating effects of smog pollution on the health of our kids can be seen across the country, especially in low-income communities and communities of color,” said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, said in late August.