Report finds Las Vegas among America’s least toxic cities

By Rich Coleman

Saturday, March 26, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

Las Vegas has led the nation in such dubious categories as unemployment and home foreclosures, and when it comes to education, well, never mind. But, hey, at least we’re not toxic.

That’s according to Forbes magazine, which lists Las Vegas as America’s fifth least toxic city.

Forbes compiled data from the Environmental Protection Agency and BestPlaces.net in looking at the 80 largest metropolitan statistical areas where toxicity data is available.

Cities were then ranked combining data for air quality, water quality, the number of Superfund sites — “uncontrolled or abandoned places where hazardous waste is located, possibly affecting local ecosystems or people” — and on-site toxic releases in 2009.

Las Vegas ranked 40th for air quality, 12th for water quality, seventh for Superfund sites and had 1.3 million pounds of on-site toxic releases in 2009.

Las Vegas is the only city on the list that had days where the air quality rose above 100 on an EPA index in 2009. At an index of 150, EPA deems air pollutant levels unhealthy, the report said.

At the top of the list was McAllen, Texas, which ranked fifth in air quality, 19th in water quality, first for Superfund sites and had only 446 pounds of on-site toxic releases.

Following McAllen, Texas are Little Rock, Ark., Raleigh, N.C., Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas, Nashville, Tenn., Scranton, Pa., Bradenton, Fla., Oklahoma City, and Wichita, Kan.

In 2009, Forbes ranked Las Vegas the least toxic city in the country.

Using the same data, Forbes also calculated a list of America’s most toxic cities. Philadelphia topped the list.