John Locher / AP
Cars drive on a street near the UNLV campus on Monday, October 17, 2016.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 | 1:33 pm
Reduced travel and car emissions during last year’s pandemic were not enough to address Clark County’s air quality problems.
Las Vegas Valley residents still experienced 96 days of increased air pollution in 2020, according to a new report from Environment Nevada Research and Policy Center, Frontier Group, and the US PRIG Education Fund.
The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise area had 81 days of elevated ozone – most in the state – and 32 days of elevated particulate matter such as dust or smoke. Some days there were both types of pollution.
White Pine County and Carson City had the second and third most ozone days in Nevada at 62 and 49, respectively.
The study confirms that there are no healthy levels of air pollution, which increases the risk of health problems like asthma – issues that disproportionately affect people of color and low-income people in Las Vegas, as previously reported by the Sun.
“Even the day we breathe polluted air is dangerous to our health,” said Eve Lukens-Day, Global Warming Solutions Associate with the Environment Nevada Research and Policy Center, in a statement. “Our leaders need to act quickly to remove pollution in all aspects of our lives. If they do, we will all breathe easier. “
In a statement, Matt Casale, director of environmental campaigns at the US PIRG Education Fund, said the main source of air pollution is traffic. But even when Americans drove less at the start of the pandemic – traffic dropped more than 40% in the last two weeks of March 2020 – air quality remained poor.
Clark County saw excessive ozone for several days this summer, mainly due to smoke entering Nevada from California forest fires. Ground-level ozone peaks from April 1st to September 30th in Las Vegas. To date, there has been 28 days of excessive ozone in the Las Vegas area this year.
Environment Nevada Research and Policy Center’s solutions include stricter infrastructure laws to help drive greener transportation projects. The report was released when Congress was evaluating the Build Back Better Act, which would create jobs in solar and other carbon-free forms of energy.
“As our driving increased in 2021, you can be sure that our vehicle pollution has kept up,” said Casale. “If we are to contain these horrific numbers and save lives, we must wean ourselves from burning fossil fuels to get around.”
