The Las Vegas Sun
www.lasvegassun.com
County takes on air quality
Cities see threat to authority over growth in Guinn transfer
By Launce Rake
June 26, 2001
Gov. Kenny Guinn has appointed the Clark County Commission
as the sole air-quality agency for Southern Nevada, a move
that significantly increases the responsibility the board
has over land-use issues, transportation and industrial
development in the region.
In a letter to the commission, Guinn designated it as the
agency to have "regulatory, enforcement and permitting
authority" for all air quality and pollution rules.
In effect, any large construction, transportation or new
industrial projects -- anything producing significant amounts
of pollution -- will have to receive a clean bill of health
from the commissioners, even if the projects already have
been approved by councils from Las Vegas, Henderson, North
Las Vegas, Boulder City or Mesquite.
Observers from the county, the cities and independent agencies
said the power transfer means the county commissioners will
play a much greater role in guiding development in Southern
Nevada. Guinn's office did not respond to additional questions.
The commissioners, directly and through policies, appointees
and employees, will have the ability to fine polluters,
set rules and grants waivers to those rules, as well as
promote or discourage economic development. The commissioners
will inherit an entire set of responsibilities now hoarded
by the Clark County Health District.
The health board, a regional agency, has for a decade exercised
the air-quality responsibilities that Guinn is shifting
to the commissioners. But the health board is a different
agency than is the commission.
County commissioners have had two seats among a dozen on
the health board, while representatives from individual
cities dominated the seats on the board.
Now, authority and responsibility for air-quality will
be concentrated among the seven elected members of the County
Commission, already one of the most powerful boards in the
state.
Criticism was swift and heated from the city of Las Vegas.
Mayor Oscar Goodman called the move "outrageous."
He said the Regional Planning Coalition, a board of elected
policymakers from across the county, "has been working
diligently for 18 months" to plan a regional air quality
agency.
"We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers
money, and with one swipe of the pen our say-so has been
deleted," Goodman said.
He said the independence of Las Vegas and the other cities
is threatened by Guinn's move.
"Now we're at the mercy of the county ... The taxpayers
elected me and the council to take care of the people of
Las Vegas, and here with one swipe of the pen our say-so
has been deleted."
Goodman and Councilman Gary Reese, who also serves on the
health board, said they will check out what options, if
any, the city has in response to the move.
"I think this is a huge step to take without any dialogue,"
Reese said. "Nobody ever voted on this, nobody ever
talked about this."
But Commission Chairman Dario Herrera said the change will
be good for the county. The county's Comprehensive Planning
Department has long made air-quality plans for the region,
but the county didn't have the authority to carry out those
plans.
"It certainly will affect the way we make comprehensive
plans and affect the way we implement land-use decisions
to improve air quality," Herrera said. "I think
the governor's action implies that he feels the county is
most qualified at making decisions relating to air quality."
About 90 employees of the health district who work on air
quality issues will either go to work for the county --
or conceivably start looking for new jobs. One of those
affected is Christine Robinson, director of the district's
Air-Quality Division.
She said the governor's decision doesn't leave room for
a challenge.
"The governor, under state law, is designating the
county commissioners as the lead agency for air quality.
Period," Robinson said.
Guinn has asked that the employees and physical assets
of the health district's Air-Quality Division be transferred
to the county by Aug. 7.
Robinson said enormous stakes of power and money are involved
in the governor's decision.
"I believe that air quality will be one of the biggest,
if not the biggest, variable concerning growth in this community
into the next century," she said.
Guinn's move ends more than a year of debate among a host
of boards and committees regarding reforms of the structure
of air-quality agencies in Clark County. City representatives
had pushed for a new, regional agency, similar if not identical
in structure to the health board.
Legislation was introduced this spring in Carson City to
create a new air-quality agency that would incorporate the
planning functions of the county together with the enforcement
and regulatory authority of the health district's Air-Quality
Division.
But after the Legislature failed to finance the new agency,
Guinn vetoed the proposal to create it.
Guinn's decision comes as Southern Nevada is struggling
to meet commitments made to the Environmental Protection
Agency in plans to control pollution from fine dust and
carbon monoxide. The region is in technical violation of
the federal Clean Air Act for violations of the health standard
for those pollutants.
The EPA is now judging the feasibility of those plans drafted
by the county. As part of the process, the federal agency
will have to judge the ability of the regional agencies
-- especially Clark County -- to implement and enforce new
air-quality rules designed to control air pollution.
If the plans to improve air quality aren't accepted by
the EPA, federal sanctions -- which could mean the loss
of hundreds of millions in annual federal dollars for roads,
water projects and other infrastructure -- would come as
soon as December 2002.
Elected policymakers and staff from the cities said they
are still trying to understand the implications of the governor's
decision.
"I can't tell you right now what the net effect is,"
agreed Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson. "My hope is that
the job (to clean up the air) gets done."
Gibson and Henderson Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers, a health
board member who had worked to create a regional board to
govern a new air quality agency, said they believe that
their city will still have representation in air pollution
issues through the commission districts.
"They are accountable to all of us," Cyphers
said.
Cyphers echoed other elected officials and city staffers
by predicting that the county will seek input from the cities
on issues affecting those municipalities.
"There has to be a natural concern when you've been
sitting at the table for so many years," she said.
"I hope that we will continue to have that opportunity
to have that input."
Herrera and County Comprehensive Planning Director John
Schlegel said the cities would have that opportunity.
"I think everybody realizes how important air-quality
issues will be as the Las Vegas Valley continues to grow,"
Schlegel said. "All of the jurisdictions are going
to have to learn how to better manage our transportation
and land-use decisions to improve air-quality.
"We'll do everything, I'm certain, to try to involve
them in the workings of this new agency," he said.
Environmentalists said that, to them, the issue isn't who
runs the local apparatus, or power shifts among regional
governments, but the quality of the air.
Jessica Hodge, Las Vegas area organizer for the Sierra
Club, said her organization will watch the commissioners
carefully to judge their commitment to clean air.
"It could be dangerous for the county commission,"
she said. "If the air isn't cleaned up, residents can
hold them accountable for that.
"The county commission had tremendous responsibilities
as it is, before this decision," Hodge said. "Now,
(its) responsibilities are three-fold."
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