Pahrump has made great progress at dust control, Jean-Paul Huys, supervisor for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality Planning, told Nye County Commissioners Wednesday.

The discussion came during a vote on the designation of a hearing examiner, Henry "Hank" Melton, from Clark County, to hear violations of air quality regulations. Last year, NDEP hired George Bernath to work in the Nye County Planning Department to do field inspections and implement the air quality program.

"Although the draft clean air action plan has not been officially finalized, control measures are being conducted ahead of the Dec. 31, 2006 deadline," Huys said.

Jennifer Carr, chief of the NDEP, Bureau of Air Quality Planning, said in the first six months of 2006 the county planning department conducted 824 zoning reviews; 104 dust control plans were submitted, of which 81 have been finalized. There have been 107 inspections, four warning notices issued for alleged violations and only two notices of violations sent out. Only 24 complaints were received halfway through 2006; all were addressed, she said.

For all of 2005, Nye County issued 1,777 zoning reviews, with 211 dust control plans submitted. Seventy-three inspections were conducted; no notices of alleged violations were issued, but 28 complaints were received by NDEP. Carr said mock hearings were held May 19 with the hearing examiner.

When the bureau started monitoring the air quality in Pahrump Valley in 2001, the valley barely met the annual dust standard of 50 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter, Huys said.

NDEP installed four air monitors: one at Manse Elementary School, one at Willow Creek golf course, another at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church (to gauge dust from off-road vehicles at the dry lake bed) and one more on North Linda Street near Johnnie.

The paving of more roads in Pahrump and the informing of the construction industry were two steps credited with the improvements by state officials. The only problems now come from wild fires or high winds, the latter problem with wind stirring up dust. The county commissioners originally told state environmental officials it would skew the dust numbers.

The Pahrump Valley will begin a three-year period, Jan. 1, 2007 in which it must show good air quality to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prevent being listed as a non-attainment area, which would impose major restrictions on construction in Pahrump.