$25 million cleanup planned at LV Wash

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2000 | 11:07 a.m.

About 1 million cubic yards of tainted soil from chemical ponds used by Henderson factories since World War II will be moved away from the Las Vegas Wash and buried next to an old landfill in Black Mountain Industrial Park.

The cleanup, which needs Clark County Commission approval, would cost about $25 million and would be the largest reclamation project in state history.

Henderson residents were told during a hearing Tuesday at the city's convention center that the work, if proper approvals are given quickly, could begin in two months.

The County Commission will need to change zoning on the site to allow a new 180-acre landfill to be built for the soil. If approved, the project would protect the Las Vegas Wash, which feeds Lake Mead, the Las Vegas Valley's drinking supply.

Black Mountain Industrial Park officials came up with the plan, which would use a covered conveyor belt to move the dirt across Boulder Highway, to save money on the cleanup. The original plan, to truck the dirt to the Apex landfill, 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas, would have cost $50 million. The new plan will cost about half that.

The BMI plants will cover that cost, said Dan Stewart, executive director and CEO of the Black Mountain Industrial Park.

Once crews remove the dirt laced with traces of heavy metals, solvents and pesticides, the land could be annexed by the city of Henderson and developed as a golf course, Stewart said.

The tainted soils will be buried more than 1,300 feet from the 176 homes along Water Street, Stewart said.

The old industries operated as the Basic Management Industrial complex on an island of Clark County land in the middle of Henderson. As environmental cleanup became the primary focus at the site, the industries changed the name to Black Mountain Industries, keeping the BMI initials.

Basic Environmental Co., a subsidiary of BMI, is leading the effort to coordinate the cleanup with the state of Nevada, Clark County and Henderson, civil engineer Robin Bain told about 55 residents.

Titanium Metals Corp. of America, known as Timet, still uses a row of 18-foot-deep ponds in the old evaporation field. To solve that problem, the industrial complex next to the landfill site would host a 10-acre closed wastewater treatment system, Bain said. That would allow Timet to continue producing titanium metal used in medical devices, airplanes and spacecraft.

Most concerned residents worried about possible air pollution as the soils move under the Boulder Highway through a box culvert to the proposed landfill site.

If the industries are allowed to expand the landfill site, they will have to meet the latest environmental rules, meaning no discharges in either air or ground water, they were told. The site would have to be lined, monitored and covered with a cap that keeps both rain and ground water out.

The industrial complex predates all federal, state and local zoning and environmental laws, Bain noted. The site is under a hodgepodge of zones, ranging from light industry to industrial. BMI is asking the county to rezone the complex to a uniform class that will allow an expanded landfill and for Timet to continue operating.

If the county approves the plan when it considers it Feb. 2, the old Timet ponds will have to be drained and that soil removed as well. Bain estimated that part of the proposal would begin in January 2002.

The county considers the old pond site "rural open land."

Henderson officials support the project. The city has been involved with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and the County Health District for 11 years, Henderson spokeswoman Vicki Taylor said. Removing the tainted soils will help protect the Las Vegas Wash, she said.