Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyFor air quality inspector Eric Poole, the dust control is personal.
"I have a two-and-a-half year old son (and) I don't want him to grow up with asthma," Poole said.
ABC15 went out with Poole to a Sun Eagle Construction site on Buckeye Road and Tenth Street in Phoenix, while he was making sure they're following the rules.
Poole issued no violations, but according to Maricopa County Air Quality Department records, not everyone's inspection goes so well.
"We're trying to control the dust as much as possible, and that's what we're tasked to do," Poole said.
The ABC15 Investigators looked at violation settlements for all of 2007 and 2008 and found the majority of notices were issued to construction companies.
"Natural desert is perfect. Natural desert we love," Poole said. "That's why we say you have to stabilize your site."
Summit Builders settled 12 dust control violations in that two year period for $125,000.
Jeff Stone, Summit Builders President and CEO, told ABC15, "It's extremely difficult to control dust in the desert" and added "We think our protocols are as good if not better than most."
Summit Builders has received no violation notices since late 2007.
Topping the dust settlement list, assembled from county records, was Fulton Homes with 14 violations settled for $180,000.
Jeff Nadreau, Fulton Homes Executive Vice President, told ABC15, "We take dust control very seriously."
Nadreau also said, "I think Maricopa County needs to work with the builders and not against them ... I don't know if that spirit of cooperation is there."
"We don't want everyone to think that we're just the dust cops, the dust police," Poole said.
Maricopa County's Air Quality Department offers training classes, and Poole said he's had less violations "now that more people are getting educated."
