Sewage plant expansion contingent on land swap

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2001 | 11:22 a.m.

Henderson officials are speeding ahead with a trade of clean land for potentially contaminated land in order to expand the city's sewage treatment plant before demand oversteps capacity.

The expected trade of 73 city-owned acres for 102 acres owned by Basic Environmental Co., would allow Henderson to start construction next spring of an $18 million facility east of the existing treatment plant. The plant is just south of the Las Vegas Wash on Pabco Road.

The new plant would increase processing capacity by 63 percent, from 24 million gallons a day to 39 million gallons a day by 2005. That kind of processing power should bring the city safely through 2010, Dennis Porter, assistant director of utility services, said.

Basic Environmental, a subsidiary of Basic Management Inc., which manages property where the Henderson industrial plants operate, would gain 73 acres bordering the southern edge of BMI, east of Boulder Highway and north of Lake Mead Drive. That land is planned for residential and commercial development.

The city-owned land is valued at $1.6 million, about $400,000 less than the Basic Environmental land, which is valued at $2 million. As part of the proposed deal, Basic Environmental would pay $500,000 for soil tests on the 102 acres. The company would also pay any necessary cleanup costs on the land, which for 35 years served as evaporation ponds for wastewater from nearby chemical manufacturing plants. The city would pay Basic Environmental $400,000 to cover the difference in land values.

The City Council gave the swap preliminary approval Tuesday. The council takes a final vote Oct. 2.

"We need the added capacity," Mayor Pro-Tem Steve Kirk said.

The land exchange, if approved, could be a long time coming. A similar exchange received approval in June 2000. But in the year since that time, Basic Environmental has been unable to obtain an official record of the land's health from the state Division of Environmental Protection.

Preliminary tests submitted to the state in March by California-based Environmental Resources Management found a few chemical concentrations exceeding state guidelines on the land earmarked for the trade. Those guidelines, geared for expected residential uses, are the strictest required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Of the 102 acres the city plans to accept from Basic Environmental, just two parcels totaling about one-tenth of an acre contained levels of contaminants unacceptable for residential development. The rest of the land, and immediate areas around it, tested favorably.

Scientists tested the land as part of a study of 2,400 acres that another BMI subsidiary, the LandWell Co., wants the city of Henderson to annex. LandWell plans to build 7,000 homes and a commercial center on the land.

But the state has yet to accept those tests as final and may require additional soil samples before allowing development on the full acreage.

Henderson officials say they suggested the amended trade in April as a way to speed up an approval process that appeared to be moving too slowly for their needs.

Environ, an international consulting company hired by the city, already conducted tests in June at the site.

And on Monday the state Environmental Protection division approved a general work plan submitted by the city, Jeff Johnson, a state environmental engineer, said.

Kirk said he expects the tests will reveal some contamination, but added that he is confident the land can be cleaned up without risk to public health.

The city plans to clean the site to industrial standards, which requires less intense testing and cleanup than for residential uses.