Developer slapped with pollution fine

A developer and a construction contractor building a housing development near the Las Vegas Wash must pay a $7,000 fine for raising dust at the site.

Saxton Inc. and Heavy Duty LLC received the fine after a hearing on Thursday at the Clark County Health District. The companies asked hearing officer Ernest Freggiaro to reduce the fine by an unspecified amount.

The health district's Air Pollution Control Division requested the $7,000 fine for failing to control dust at the Silver Springs development near Tropicana Avenue and Broadbent Boulevard on Aug. 4.

"We are a very small company," Jeff Fegert, representing Heavy Duty, said. "The costs of paying fines have hurt us tremendously."

However, Freggiaro reviewed the Air Pollution Control Division's records on both companies at the hearing and said earlier violations read like "a rap sheet." He indicated the fine was appropriate.

Heavy Duty was fined $8,000 for a dust violation on June 30, and Saxton had paid $200 for a violation on Aug. 6 at the same site.

Fegert and Steve Kelly of Saxton said once grading began at the site, ground water invaded the soils, making dust control a nightmare. "The dust control is very difficult in the Las Vegas Wash," Fegert said.

"I don't have a lot of sympathy," Freggiaro said, noting developers are responsible for helping to reduce Southern Nevada's air pollution problems.

After the pollution control hearing, Clark County officials met in a workshop to begin preparing bill drafts for the 1999 Legislature to help control Southern Nevada's serious air pollution problems before a federal government deadline.

Local officials are considering a proposal for annual smog checks on diesel vehicles and heavy construction equipment that spew 15 tons per day of particles, adding to the visible haze in the valley.

If Clark County doesn't propose specific pollution control legislation this year, it could be too late for the Legislature to act. The federal clean-air deadline is Dec. 31, 2000, and the Legislature will not meet again until the year 2001.

"It may be too late then. We will have other problems, bigger problems down the road," said environmentalist Jeff van Ee, referring to federal punishment such as loss of highway funds or a halt to valley growth if Southern Nevada does not control dust and carbon monoxide in exhausts. The Environmental Protection Agency considers Clark County in serious nonattainment for both pollutants.

California has already declared diesel smoke as a carcinogen, because the fuel contains benzene products, which are known to create cancer.

Diesel bus and heavy truck exhaust contributes 5 tons per day, while construction-based diesel engines dump 10 tons per day into the air, said Michael Naylor, director of the Health District's Air Pollution Control Division.

In 1991 Southern Nevada's cities and Clark County sent a resolution to the Legislature asking for annual diesel smog checks. The measure failed.

The public complains about diesel exhaust more than any other pollutant, van Ee said.

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