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PHOENIX — Air-quality regulators in Maricopa County have issued more citations for violations of dust rules in the first nine months of this year than in any previous year on record.

The county also has tripled the number of inspectors it fields to check on violations and has increased the size of fines.

The efforts by the Maricopa County Air Quality Department come from the top: The department's new director, Bob Kard, took the helm in March 2005 promising to crack down on dust-control violations.

Controlling dust is part of the county's strategy to bring air pollution levels within federal limits. Officials said they are just enforcing existing rules the department let slide before.

"Yeah, there's more activity, but it's what we should have been doing all along," Kard said.

The most frequently targeted industry is construction, and industry insiders said dust control is now a serious expense that is factored into their bids. But they also contend their industry has been disproportionately punished, while farming and other major sources of dust are sheltered by state law.

"I would put an acre of construction up against an acre of farmland any day of the week when it comes to emissions," said Spencer Kamps, vice president of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona.

Kamps acknowledged that dust is a major problem but said county inspectors were handing out tickets for trivial violations while farmers remain exempt.

County dust inspectors are required to make at least five inspections per year to sites of more than 10 acres, and a minimum of one visit per year to smaller sites.

Before Kard's arrival, the department's dust inspectors couldn't make the required number of visits. When an inspector issued a notice of violation, the case went to the County Attorney's Office, and some took years to resolve.

Kard went on a hiring spree, adding 20 inspectors and bringing the total to 30. He also raised inspector salaries from a minimum of $16 per hour to just under $20. And he had the appeal and fine-collection process transferred from the County Attorney's Office to his department.

Since January, 335 citations have been issued, compared with 193 for all of 2001. Fines also have increased, from $308,000 in 2004 to $1.25 million so far this year.

Maricopa County missed a federal deadline to meet particulate standards, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency now is placing the region on what's known as a Five Percent Plan. That requires a 5 percent yearly reduction in emissions until standards are met.

The only other region in the nation to be placed on such a plan is California's San Joa-quin Valley, which happens to be where Kard used to work. Air-quality regulators there were able to meet standards only after changing the law to allow regulation of farms.

The extra attention is effective, and crucial to keeping dust down, those familiar with the county's inspections say.

"It's the old adage," said Jeff Nadreau, executive vice president of Fulton Homes. "What gets watched gets managed."