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Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management Receives Award for Particulate Matter Program
The County’s Department of Air Quality and Environmental Management (DAQEM) was among 29 award recipients to receive recognition at the U.S. EPA’s10th Annual Environmental Awards program held in San Francisco. The Region 9 Environmental Awards Program acknowledges commitment and significant contributions to the environment in Nevada, California, Arizona, Hawaii, Tribal Lands, and the Pacific Islands. U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Wayne Nastri presented the award to Rodney Langston, Principal Planner and Tina Gingras, DAQEM Assistant Director which acknowledged the work that Clark County has done to curtail fugitive dust.
Clark County adopted fugitive dust rules more stringent than any prior program in the country and employed a team of 28 field compliance officers dedicated to enforce fugitive dust regulations. The program targeted large construction sites and conducted an extensive public outreach campaign to educate owners of large expanses of vacant residential land. The department also funded new research in PM-10 paved-road and vacant-land emissions, which provides new techniques with greater accuracy for estimating emissions.
DAQEM Director, Lewis Wallenmeyer acknowledged, “From efforts in planning, regulation development, test method development, administration, contracting and budgeting, permitting, enforcement, monitoring, compliance inspections, advisory committee members and stakeholder involvement, so many have played important roles leading to Clark County receiving this important award.”
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. “Rodney Langston, instrumental in working on the dust program, submitted our project to the EPA. Upon accepting the award Rodney remarked that it has been a “long and dusty road” achieving the standards for particulate matter. We all know that traveling that long, dusty road has been well worth the effort for every resident in Clark County,” said Wallenmeyer.
Fugitive dust is particulate matter (tiny dust particles) suspended in the air through activities such as soil cultivation, or vehicles operating on open fields or dirt roadways. The particles when inhaled can cause health concerns especially for children, the elderly and those with respiratory and cardiac conditions.
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