Reno lauded for efforts to improve air quality

RENO -- For the first time in 30 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to drop Washoe County from the list of places failing to meet national air quality standards for carbon monoxide.

"Washoe County has cleaner air today, in part because of investments in clean vehicles and fuel," said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region based in San Francisco.

The federal agency designated the Reno-Sparks area as nonattainment for carbon monoxide in 1977. The county hasn't exceeded the federal health standard since 1995.

"But in order to change the official designation, it isn't enough just to have clean air. You have to have a maintenance plan to keep it that way," said Jeff Wehling, a legal adviser to EPA's regional office.

"Washoe County has now adopted a plan and we are approving the strategy the county and state have for maintaining the standard for the next 10 years," he said Friday.

Steps the county has taken to reduce air pollution include restrictions on wood-burning and adoption of an oxygenated gasoline program that helps cut down on the colorless, odorless gas formed when carbon in fuel is not burned completely.

In addition, the state has implemented a vehicle inspection and maintenance program that includes a smog check and federal regulators have stepped up emissions standards for motor vehicles.

Washoe County remains on the nonattainment list for particulate matter primarily because of dust from construction sites and gravel pits and sand dumped on roads during winter, but county officials have submitted a plan to be re-designated for that standard as well.