County wins war against carbon monoxide emissions
Clark County air quality officials are breathing easier with an announcement Wednesday that after 32 years of battling carbon monoxide tailpipe emissions the war against that pollutant is over.
They said in a news release that the Environmental Protection Agency has reclassified the Las Vegas Valley as an official attainment area for carbon monoxide, meaning the threat of federal sanctions against the county has dissipated with approval of a long-term plan that shows the valley will meet the health standard for carbon monoxide through the next decade.
"This is tremendous news for our community and a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to fight air pollution," said Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, who was quoted in the news release and serves as chairman of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
"Every resident of Clark County enjoys the benefits of cleaner air today because of the actions we took to fight carbon monoxide pollution," he said.
Dennis Ransel, the county's air quality planning manager, said cleaner-burning, oxygenated fuels will continue to be sold from Oct. 1 to March 31 as required. He noted, however, that 10 percent oxygenated fuels are now sold year round despite a requirement to sell them in the winter that was adopted in the late 1990s.
"The conventional gasoline we get today is as clean as the gasoline we get in the suspended rule," Ransel said.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is released from the combustion of fossil fuels such as gasoline in engines of cars and trucks and wood from wood-burning fireplaces. It is a health hazard because it robs the body of oxygen, especially during winter months when it can be trapped in air near the ground by temperature inversion layers.
The EPA designated the Las Vegas Valley as a nonattainment area for carbon monoxide in 1978, prompting Clark County and Nevada to adopt programs for enhanced vehicle emission tests and the wintertime sale of cleaner-burning fuels. Vehicle manufacturers followed suit with cleaner-burning engines and the county issued warnings to curb wood-burning fires.
The last time the county violated the federal carbon monoxide standard was 1998. Two years later, a plan to keep carbon monoxide within the standard was approved, leading to a finding of attainment by the EPA in 2005. This allowed the county to submit a long-term maintenance plan and apply for redesignation as an attainment area, avoiding federal sanctions such as loss of federal highway funding .
"Our community worked hard to clean up its act when it came to carbon monoxide, and our valley is a healthier place to live as a result," said Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, a member of the Southern Nevada Health District's Board of Health.
The county is still grappling with a ground-level ozone or smog problem spurred by more stringent federal standards for that pollutant that the EPA is expected to announce in late October.
Ransel said county officials will be considering a requirement for reformulated gasoline to be sold to counter ozone emissions. He said the same fuel is used in Arizona and California. It is more expensive to produce but that doesn't necessarily translate to higher prices at the pumps in Nevada, he said.
Lewis Wallenmeyer, director of Clark County's Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management, said he feels confident the county can successfully tackle the ozone problem. In addition, he said the county has learned from its experience in dealing with carbon monoxide through public education and applied the knowledge to combating another air pollution problem, windblown dust. The county currently meets dust standards and is working on a long-term plan to maintain compliance.
Contact reporter Keith Rogers at
krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.
