All News Releases By Date

PAVING COMPANIES TO PAY $185,500 TO SETTLE AIR POLLUTION VIOLATIONS: LAS VEGAS VALLEY FIRMS MUST ALSO REDUCE AIR EMISSIONS

Release Date: 1/11/2000
Contact Information: Dave Schmidt, U.S. EPA,(415) 744-1578, Blaine Welsh, Department of Justice, (702) 388-6336

     (San Francisco) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice today announced that two Las Vegas area paving companies, Southern Nevada Paving Inc. and Las Vegas Paving Corp., have agreed to pay penalties totalling $185,500 and reduce pollution from their operations to settle two air pollution cases involving emissions of dust and diesel engine exhaust from their operations in Clark County.  The terms were included in consent decrees lodged in federal district court in Las Vegas.

     Southern Nevada Paving, Inc. paid a $103,000 civil penalty and agreed to take air pollution reduction measures to settle alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act and Clark County's own smoke limits. Specifically, the company exceeded Clark County's limits on the opacity of particulate matter emissions at one rock crushing plant and violated the federal law's New Source Performance Standards for testing of new equipment at four other rock crushing plants and one hot mix asphalt plant in the county.  

     In addition to paying the penalty, the settlement requires the company, at an estimated cost of $650,000, to replace an older drum mixer type asphalt plant with a far cleaner, state-of-the-art double barrel drum mixer.  The new mixer will minimize generation of particulate matter and smog-forming volatile organic compounds.  The new mixer will minimize generation of "blue smoke," a visible emission at older asphalt plants.

     Las Vegas Paving Corp. agreed to pay an $82,500 penalty and reduce its air emissions to settle alleged Clean Air Act violations at its Lone Mountain and Apex rock crushing and asphalt batch processing plants.  The company installed and operated five new diesel engines at its Lone Mountain facility in violation of Clark County's clean air plan.  At the Apex site, the company installed and operated a nonmetallic mineral processing and hot mix asphalt facility without complying with federal air pollution rules requiring notification and emissions testing of the new  equipment. The settlement requires the company to retrofit one diesel engine wth timing retardation that reduces air pollution, and to obtain proper permits from the Clark County Health District for all other engines.