Spring Valley area residents protest against plans for second asphalt mixing plant

When Steven Williamson’s son suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease came to visit him last Christmas, he nearly was taken off his feet by a heavy tarlike smell that pervades his father’s Spring Valley neighborhood.

“He walked outside and almost passed out, had to come back in,” Williamson said. “(He) said, ‘I can’t breathe out there.’”

The pungent odor comes from a Wells Cargo-owned asphalt mixing plant located on West Spring Mountain Road near South Durango Drive. The facility is a short distance north of Spring Valley High School and surrounded by homes.

While the Williamsons and most families in the area have learned to live with the plant, which has been in operation since the ’60s, about 50 residents marched up and down West Spring Mountain Road for an hour Sunday afternoon to protest a planned expansion by Wells Cargo.

The group wore white dust masks and toted signs with phrases such as “Let Us Breathe,” “Save Our Health” and “No To Expansion.”

Wells Cargo will appear Tuesday before the Clark County Planning Commission to seek permission to build a second, similarly sized asphalt plant inside a 72-acre gravel pit it owns just south of its existing plant. The company also is asking the county allow it to build silos up to 87 feet high.

Clark County staff has recommended approval, but some Spring Valley residents are hoping they can convince county leaders to reconsider the project.

The current asphalt plant already produces a level of noise, stench and airborne dust that is almost unbearable, resident Joseph Ly said.

“If you can imagine going out in your neighborhood and getting covered by dust, every breath you take you can feel the dust and you can feel it on your skin,” he said. “We do have several residents here that developed and have exacerbated respiratory issues that live in this community.”

While Ly and others fear they might be breathing in asbestos, the county’s Department of Air Quality director Marci Henson said her staff has “no reason to believe they (Wells Cargo) have asbestos on site.”

All local businesses must meet federal standards required by the Clean Air Act, Henson said. The county conducts air-quality checks periodically.

To open a second asphalt mixing plant, the company will have to prove that the combined emissions of both plants won’t exceed federal standards.

“These standards are set to protect the public’s health and make sure whatever emissions and pollutions that may be emitted from the facility are beneath any levels that would cause harm to our health,” Henson said.

The county , however, has received 35 air-quality complaints about Wells Cargo’s Spring Valley operations since Oct. 1, 2014. The county also issued the company four notices of violation for its Spring Valley operations since 2015. Two were for visible emissions, usually related to dust, Henson said.

Each notice that is upheld by the county means Wells Cargo has to pay a fine and come into compliance with standards.

“We certainly take our responsibilities very seriously,” Henson said. “We’re going to make sure they’re following the law.”

Wells Cargo Vice President of Operations Phil Groff wrote in an email last week that his company takes “aggressive and proactive approaches to our operation to minimize our impact and to ensure that our dust and operating emissions are within allowable limits” as residential development has grown in the Spring Valley area.

“The selection of the specific location within our site for this particular plant was based on optimizing the required space for the proposed operation, the staging of delivery vehicles and the routing of traffic flow to further minimize impacts to the residential neighborhoods,” Groff wrote.

Still, residents including Ly and Williamson are sure they don’t want to see, smell or hear a second asphalt plant adjacent to their neighborhoods and plan to meet with County Commissioner Susan Brager on Monday.

“We’re just kind of stuck, and we’re looking for help,” Williamson said.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.