State issues temporary permit for water runoff from Cascata golf course

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 | 9:12 a.m.

The state Bureau of Water Pollution Control has issued a temporary discharge permit that allows runoff from Cascata golf course in Boulder City while course engineers repair leaks there.

Cascata is owned by Park Place Entertainment and used by high rollers who visit the casino group's properties.

The six-month permit gives Cascata until May 25 to stop runoff, which dumped up to nearly 200,000 gallons a day into the desert, said Icyl Mulligan, senior bureau administrator. The runoff poses a potential threat to state groundwaters, Mulligan said.

Course operators are lining ponds and spillways and repairing water collection systems at the private, gated course. More than 40 percent of the leaks have been eliminated, Park Place officials have said. They said they plan to seal all leaks.

As part of required monthly reports, Park Place will monitor water flows and measure the presence of naturally occurring hazardous metals, including manganese and aluminum. The course, north of the U.S. 93/95 interchange in the River Mountains, is near a former alunite mining district.

The runoff came to the attention of state environmental officials in October after residents expressed concern about a two-mile stretch of desert greening up south of the course in the Eldorado Valley. The state issued the permit Nov. 25.