Guarantees sought on water quality

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

Before the Army Corps of Engineers issues a dredge permit for a planned regional flood channel emptying into the Las Vegas Wash, two regional agencies want guarantees about erosion and water quality as well as public access to the Las Vegas Wash wetlands.

Commerce Associates plans to build the roughly one-mile, $13 million section of regional flood channel using Henderson redevelopment money secured through Tuscany, its 525-acre master-planned community.

Among the matters hanging in the balance is construction of a bridge over a portion of the channel. The bridge would be part of a planned six-mile scenic drive accessible to cars and pedestrians. The bridge has been included since 1995 in plans to develop a 2,900-acre wetlands park, said Jeff Harris, director of county park planning.

All the parties involved in the project say the bridge is a given, but the developer and governmental entities still have to work out who will pay how much of the cost of the bridge.

But engineers so far have been unable to agree on how the end of the channel should be built to protect recovering wetland.

Public comments about the project forwarded Friday for review by the Henderson Public Works Department included some requirements proposed by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Clark County Parks and Recreation Department.

The Army Corps, which oversees U.S. waters, including the Las Vegas Wash, will ultimately decide the requirements for the permit being sought by Henderson on behalf of Strip developer Commerce Associates.

"We want to give them an opportunity to respond to the comments," said Grady McNure, district engineer of the Army Corps' St. George, Utah, regional office.

"Then we'll complete our evaluation as to whether or not to issue the permit."

Bob Unger, a Commerce Associates manager, said: "We're happy to live with whatever the Army Corps comes up with."

Curt Chandler, Henderson director of flood control, said Monday he had not yet received the public comments from the Army Corps. But Chandler said he has been reluctant to enter an ongoing dispute between the water authority and Commerce Associates as to the work necessary to protect recovering wetlands at the end of the channel.

"It's become a technical battle between the two engineers and we haven't jumped in. We've been letting them fight that out," Chandler said.

The Army Corps of Engineers halted work on the 120-foot-wide channel in February after discovering that PBS&J, engineers for Commerce Associates, dredged about a third of an acre of protected wetland without first seeking a permit.

In a three-page letter to the Army Corps on Nov. 20, Marcus Jensen, water authority director of engineering, said if the end of the channel is built as proposed by Commerce Associates, faster, more streamlined flows will erode the bed and banks of the wash, degrading water quality by carrying more dirt to Lake Mead.

Commerce Associates should be required to slow flows as they enter the wash, Jensen said.