LAS VEGAS - When new dust-control rules take effect at the end of the year, they will target what officials say is the bulk of the problem - federal land in the Las Vegas Valley.
The rules approved Thursday by the Board of Health will force the Bureau of Land Management to pay for its share of controlling dust on large tracts of vacant federal land, said Michael Naylor, the district's Air Quality Division director.
Naylor's staff and county planners, who proposed the rules to avoid sanctions by the Environmental Protection Agency, said they will determine how much the BLM will have to pay.
''They're going to need millions of dollars in their budget'' to control dust, Naylor told the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition.
The new rules will put controls on fine dust from vacant land, unpaved roads and parking lots, utility easements and other sources.
They also increase penalties for breaking existing rules for dust control during construction.
BLM officials from the Las Vegas field office didn't participate in the coalition's meeting.
Naylor said the bureau is taking the position that the new rules don't apply to the BLM lands, contrary to the county air planning team's view that the BLM is subject to federal clean air laws.
The EPA lists the valley as a serious problem area for dust.
The price tag for controlling dust on 24,000 acres of unstable land - much of which is BLM land, Naylor said - could be as high as $36 million spread among property owners, including the federal government.
