Work on water project will be accelerated

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999 | 11:51 a.m.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority decided Wednesday to speed up construction on a giant water treatment plant in an effort to soothe Henderson residents upset about dust and noise generated by the massive project.

The water authority board authorized Deputy General Manager David Donnelly to meet with contractors on the $146 million River Mountains Water Treatment Plant to move up completion of the project by four years in response to nearby homeowners' complaints about increased traffic, dust and bright security lights used at the site.

Board member Amanda Cyphers of Henderson said relations between Henderson residents living near the site and the water authority are "strained."

Residents have also complained about giant cranes blocking views, dirt piles, scarred excavation pits and safety, Cyphers said.

The River Mountains plant will treat a total of 300 million gallons a day of drinking water with chlorine and ozone when completed. The ozone kills bacteria and other organisms such as giardia and the single-celled cryptosporidium, both of which cause severe diarrhea and are not killed by chlorine.

The board decided in 1993 to build the plant in a single phase, but an advisory committee in 1995 urged building the plant in phases to match Southern Nevada's growth spurts.

On the two-phase approach, the treatment plant would be ready in 2008, Donnelly said. By changing the process, the unsightly work on basins to strain particles should be finished by 2004, he said.

Speeding up the construction schedule will also save the authority about $5 million, Donnelly estimated.

In other action, the board created a new entity to hold stock options on 3,662 acre-feet of water rights on the Muddy River worth $11 million. By state law a public agency such as the water authority cannot hold stock. So the board created the Muddy River Holdings, Inc. to keep those water options on tap until more water is needed in the Las Vegas Valley.