County may face pollution sanctions

It remains to be seen whether Clark County will face federal sanctions for missing a deadline on a plan to address air quality.

The deadline was Monday for the county to have submitted a report to the Environmental Protection Agency on how it plans to reduce carbon monoxide levels.

Clark County officials say the plan will not be ready until September.

David Howekamp, regional air quality director for the EPA, said Thursday that federal officials have 60 days to decide whether to sanction the county for missing the deadline.

Sanctions could include cutting back on federal highway funds and imposing a federal plan for clearing Southern Nevada's air of the invisible, deadly gas from vehicle exhausts.

Clark County is in the EPA's "serious" category for carbon monoxide and dust. If the county fails to submit an adequate plan, the federal plan would become effective 18 months after EPA Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus notifies Clark County.

Will Cates, a planner for the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Division, said the deadline was missed because planners realized too late that they had underestimated the amount of carbon monoxide emitted at McCarran International Airport and the airports in Henderson and North Las Vegas.

Early estimates from the airports, Cates said, were 10 tons a day, but more recent estimates reached 37 tons a day for a total of 13,505 tons a year, about 10 percent of the total carbon monoxide released in the Las Vegas Valley. The rest of the emissions are due to vehicle exhaust.

Once the county finishes its plan, Cates said, a public hearing will be announced and the state could approve it by September. That would stop the federal regulatory clock.

Robert Hall, director of the watchdog group Nevada Environmental Commission, filed a failure notice with the EPA on April 27. The notice says the county violated both carbon monoxide and dust standards. If Hall follows up the notice with a lawsuit within 60 days, the EPA would have to put the county on notice under federal law. The county could begin losing federal highway funds two years after the notice is issued.

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