Southern Nevada's Building Industry Plays Vital Role in Dust Control for Healthy Air

When Clark County won federal approval in September 2004 for its clean-air plan for dust, the local construction industry took pride in its role in that significant accomplishment.

In fact, a top-ranking official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency described the cooperation between local government agencies and the construction industry to control and reduce dust pollution as “particularly ground breaking.”

“I think it is very impressive and probably unique to have the construction industry step up and really agree to pursue such an aggressive dust-control effort,” said EPA Assistant Administrator Jeffery Holmstead during a visit to Clark County in February 2003.

SNHBA was proud and pleased when Clark County’s Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management (DAQEM) was among 29 award recipients to receive recognition at the U.S. EPA’s 10th Annual Region 9 Environmental Awards program in San Francisco in April 2008. The award acknowledged the successful work done to curtail fugitive dust.

Clark County’s advanced dust control program, selected from a field of 130 nominees, serves as a national model and has been essential in leading the Las Vegas Valley to achieve PM-10 concentrations below the EPA’s standard.

The effort began in earnest in 1995. Responding to community and environmental concerns about air quality, Southern Nevada’s building industry stepped up to the plate when industry representatives went voluntarily to the Clark County Health District and proposed a plan to control dust at construction sites.

The first step was a self-imposed 300 percent increase in the grading permit fee to $85, which paid for the hiring of additional county dust inspectors to monitor air quality conditions at construction sites, and the creation of the Particulate Matter Emission Control Research Advisory Committee.

The role of that committee was to provide recommendations to the District Board of Health on research projects that would improve the air quality in targeted areas of Clark County. The committee reviewed dust-control technologies to determine effectiveness.

Some of the early voluntary steps in the mid- to late-1990s, which later became requirements for dust-control in the construction industry, included the maintenance of log books in construction vehicles to outline steps taken to mitigate dust; watering of construction sites, particularly at night to allow time for the soil to dry to a crusted surface which holds down dust; and the cleaning of track-out dirt from the site to the streets to prevent the dirt from rising as dust.

By 1996, the joint efforts by the construction industry and the Health District resulted in the creation of a “Dust School” to educate builders and related professionals about dust-abatement technology and mitigate any fining that they had received for dust violations. More than 12,000 construction industry personnel have attended the Dust School since September 1997.

By the late 1990s, with the community struggling to achieve the EPA standard for dust or face tough economic sanctions by the federal government, the local construction industry ratcheted up its efforts to help the community control dust pollution.

Various groups in the industry joined to form the Southern Nevada Building Industry Coalition for Air Quality in 1999.

“The goal of the coalition (was) to get together and work toward regulations that are reasonable for the construction industry and so that all facets of the construction industry (were) united to help government draft regulations for the good of the community,” said longtime local homebuilder Mark Doppe, who served as co-chairman of the coalition. “The coalition (was) interested in ensuring a local solution for meeting air quality standards so the federal government doesn’t come in and set the standards.”

The eight members of the coalition were: Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated General Contractors, the Concrete and Aggregate Association, Del Webb Corp., the Howard Hughes Corp., National Association of Industrial & Office Properties, Nevada Contractors Association, and the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.

In addition to reviewing dust-control technologies to make recommendations to the government for effective dust-control regulations, the coalition members raised the funds to hire a renowned air quality expert to serve as an adviser and guide on air quality issues, dust and EPA requirements.

That expert was Dr. James M. Lents, the director of corporate affiliates program and environmental policy at the Center for Environmental Research & Technology at the University of California’s Bourns College of Engineering. Dr. Lents spent 27 years managing air quality improvement projects nationwide, including 11 years as executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in Diamond Bar, Calif.

Most importantly, Dr. Lents oversaw the development (at South Coast) of the first Air Quality Management Plan ever to be approved by the EPA for the Los Angeles area. The award-winning expert worked on air-quality projects worldwide, including in Soa Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; Mexico City; Taipei, Taiwan; and Guangzhou, China.

The Southern Nevada Building Industry Coalition on Air Quality is proud to have brought that level of expertise to the table as the Clark County community worked on its dust-control plan.

It was the coalition that insisted that other sources of dust pollution, such as unpaved roads, alleys, easements, parking lots, vacant land and street-sweeping equipment, come under dust-mitigation rules and regulations. The coalition also supported the creation of the Clark County Department of Air Quality Management in the early 2000s to bring together various local agencies involved in air quality issues.

Developers and builders must submit a dust-control plan for each construction site, secure dust-control permits, and compliance officers visit construction sites to make sure the plans are working.

In January 2001, the Clark County Commission presented the coalition with a special proclamation to recognize the coalition’s outstanding service to the community “to ensure that stringent and reliable dust mitigation practices have been adopted and will be adhered to.” In April 2001, the Clark County Health District presented the coalition with a “CARE” Award for the coalition’s voluntary contributions to the development of new regulations for dust control. CARE stands for Clean Air Recognition Effort Award.

Clark County issued 4,368 dust-control permits to construction companies, covering 36,552 acres in 2007; compared with 1,988 permits covering nearly 20,000 acres in 1998.

Officials at the Clark County Department of Air Quality Management have stated that the community is “ahead of the curve on dust control” and that air-quality officials in other parts of the country contact Clark County for advice about dust-control measures.

That’s an air quality leadership role in which Southern Nevada’s construction industry takes pride.

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