Developer faces hearing over pollution

Environmental officials are cracking down on a developer near the Las Vegas Wash to control air pollution and water contamination.

Saxton Inc. and its contractor Wesley Corp. are expected to appear Thursday before Ernest Freggiaro, hearing officer for the Clark County Health District's Air Pollution Control Division.

The Health District complaint says Saxton raised too much dust, failed to clean paved access roads and failed to keep a 10,000-gallon water tank on the 34.4-acre site of its Silver Springs development near Broadbent Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue on May 8.

The developer is also accused of failing to apply for a dust control permit while grading 55 acres next to its current home site.

The Health District's Air Pollution Control Division is asking for a $19,600 fine. The $10,000 for dust violation is the maximum penalty allowed by law. The $9,600 applies to Saxton grading the nearby property without a permit.

In January Saxton and its contractor Heavy Duty, a limited liability corporation, were fined $7,000 for failing to control dust on Aug. 4 at Silver Springs. Saxton was also fined $200 for a dust violation Aug. 6.

In addition, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection will require Saxton to get a permit to discharge poor quality water into the wash, six miles upstream from where Southern Nevada draws most of its drinking water.

Saxton has asked the state to dump up to 2,200 gallons per minute of water containing 7,280 parts per million of salts from its property into Duck Creek.

The Saxton property is next to land where Clark County plans to build a visitors center for its 2,000-acre Desert Wetlands Park.

According to Saxton's request, the discharges will flow into Duck Creek or into the wash through the proposed wetlands park.

Before allowing that, the state will require the developer to monitor water leaving its property.

Saxton must monitor how much water flows into the wash, as well as measure four times a year how much inorganic nitrogen, dissolved solids or salts, acid or alkalinity and phosphorous are in the water.

In addition, the state agency will require an annual water quality test for arsenic, a heavy metal.

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