Bighorn sheep graze in Boulder City’s Hemenway Park, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. The background is hazy due to smoke blown in from California wildfires. This year, Clark County has seen 26 ozone exceedances, or periods when ozone concentrations surpass healthy levels in an eight-hour period. The pollution affects humans and wildlife alike.
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Air-quality advisories from the Clark County Department of Environment and Sustainability have become commonplace this summer in the Las Vegas area.
Step outside and look toward a skyline obstructed by smoke — the recent reality for Las Vegas residents in the light of increasingly common smoke and other air quality advisories this summer.
This year, Clark County has seen 27 ozone exceedances, or when ozone concentrations surpass healthy levels in an eight-hour period. Elevated levels of smoke, ozone and other pollutants can irritate respiratory diseases as well as add to ground-level ozone formation, which can cause other respiratory health issues.
The 26 ozone exceedances easily outpace the number of those in three of the past four years. There were 18 in 2017, three in 2019 and 15 in 2020. With 35 ozone exceedances only 2018 surpassed this year’s number.
Smoke from wildfires in California is causing particulate matter pollution, an additional problem that has ramped up with hotter temperatures. Factors like sunlight, wildfire smoke — namely from the Caldor Fire near Lake Tahoe — have an effect on ozone levels, said Kevin MacDonald, public information administrator for Clark County’s Environment and Sustainability Department.
“We certainly believe that climate change is a factor in this because we’re seeing this more frequently, and that’s something that certainly has to be addressed at a much larger level than the local level,” MacDonald said. “We can do everything right, but still, when wildfire smoke blows in, there’s not a lot that we can do to combat that.”
Since it first ignited Aug. 14 and through Monday, the Caldor Fire has torn through 276 square miles. The fire was 19% contained on Sunday, then dropped to 14% contained on Monday, but rose to 16% Tuesday, according to Cal Fire.
Gov. Steve Sisolak declared a state of emergency Monday in anticipation of the Caldor Fire crossing state lines into Nevada in the coming week. During a state of emergency, local, state and federal levels are made available to allocate the necessary resources.
“We will continue to use all our available resources to fight this fire and assist those in need,” he said in a statement.
Poor air quality is a symptom of fossil fuel dependency, an issue that disproportionately affects people of color and low-income people in Clark County, as previously reported by the Sun. But the mesh of rising heat and pollution is also affecting wildlife in Clark County, said Patrick Donnelly, state director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Donnelly said the drought had been particularly devastating for the fauna in Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, located about 90 miles outside Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert.
“They are breathing in the smoke just like we are, and they don’t have … air conditioned indoors to go to,” he said. “This summer has been extremely alarming.”
Donnelly said the Center for Biological Diversity had filed lawsuits against federal and state governments to protect endangered species and force lawmakers to adhere to environmental policy. But, ultimately, the lawsuits are a tool to ward off further damage.
“Lawsuits are a way to stop the bleeding so we can try to fix what’s wrong systemically with our society,” he said. “If we can prevent the extinction of the desert tortoise long enough that we can change how society interacts with nature, then we have a fighting chance.”
Air pollution, like the smoke present last week, contains minuscule particles that can affect those with respiratory issues, including asthma. During these advisories, residents are advised to avoid the outdoors, keep their windows and doors closed, and change dirty indoor air filters, MacDonald said.
In the past 30 years, the western United States has dried up and experienced burning temperatures because of climate change. Wildfires like Caldor have also grown progressively, the result of nature or human instigation. In 2020, the El Dorado Fire in California was sparked by a couple hosting a gender reveal party gone wrong, and a mishandled smoke-creating device lit Los Angeles ablaze.
Home hardening and community defense in the Sierra Nevada region — on the eastern border of California and beyond Nevada state lines — are the primary measures in protecting houses against the sometimes-inevitable summer wildfires, said Justin Augustine, attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in California.
Home hardening includes creating fire-resistant homes, removing nearby flammable objects like vegetation, and placing mesh on chimneys and other entrances to the house to capture embers.
Swift evacuation and warning plans are also key to fire safety, Augustine said, as well as prohibiting new building developments in fire-prone areas. He also said that heavy dependence on fossil fuels in combination with extreme heat and human accidents were the primary stubborn roadblocks in preventing the fires.
A separate portion of this issue, Augustine said, is logging projects in the state that cut down regular or damaged trees in fire-stricken areas, a motion that Augustine said actively contributed to the problem. The U.S. Forest Service allows private companies to excavate and sell timber from these logging projects, a direct incentive for more tree removal on natural lands that leads to profits for the Forest Service.
“Many of those large trees, they’re not only habitat for wildlife, they are also themselves some of the most fire-resistant trees due to their size,” he said. “So there’s no reason to be cutting them other than for the Forest Service to make money after sale.”
