Trash continues to pose flood-control problem

Friday, Aug. 22, 2003 | 11:26 a.m.

To report a problem with a flood-control channel, intake or basin, call:

In North Las Vegas, 633-1200

In Clark County, 455-6000

In Las Vegas, 229-6227

In Henderson, 565-2140, emergency; 565-2813, cleaning.

Regional Flood Control District, 455-3139.

When the rain comes to Southern Nevada, millions of gallons of water can sweep rapidly through narrow flood channels, through grated intake drains and into huge holding basins.

With that water can come old tires, bicycles, furniture, construction waste, trees and household waste. The debris can be a big problem and contribute to urban flooding, as local governments discovered in the July 1999 flood that did $22 million in damage to Clark County's homes, roads and infrastructure.

Debris collection has been implicated in the flood damage that affected homes along Duck Creek and the Flamingo Wash in the 1999 flood.

Officials from throughout the region said that flood served as a wake-up call to the importance of keeping objects out of the channels.

Clark County and the area's cities all receive annual funding from the Clark County Regional Flood Control District for maintenance on the 350 miles of flood-control channels in the region. The flood control district builds the channels to deliver storm water to the detention basins, where water can be slowly released without threatening life or property.

Once channels are built, the flood control district turns over the structures to the cities and county government, which officially own the infrastructure. Public works departments from the governments do the maintenance.

Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for Clark County Public Works, said he could not comment directly on the flood issues from 1999 because of still unresolved litigation, but he said debris continues to be a problem for the hundreds of miles of flood-control channels under the county's jurisdiction.

"Any flood control channel, anywhere in the valley, is susceptible to debris," Shelton said. "We would like to think, with the improvements we're making, debris is not as big a problem, but it is still a problem."

Much of the county's budget of $2.7 million received from the flood control district this year will go to simply keeping trash, big and small, from blocking the water.

Debris can catch on gratings that bring the water into detention basins or snag on bridges and other structures, causing artificial dams that can cause water to back up. People too often use the flood channels as a dump, especially in remote areas, Shelton said.

Jerry Walker, streets and sanitation manager for the city of Las Vegas, said trash isn't the only threat to the free flow of water. People sometimes park their vehicles, even large recreational vehicles or boats, in flood channels. Those vehicles can just turn into big dams when washed down the channels.

"People don't think it will ever rain," he said.

Walker said those issues were not the problem in Tuesday's flooding in the city's northwest, when mud and an overwhelming 3 inches of rain in an hour backed water into residential neighborhoods.

Walker said the city strives to be proactive in maintaining and cleaning the channels, inlets and drains that feed the detention basins. Two teams, one for each side of the city with Decatur Boulevard the dividing line, do nothing except clean the structures "all day long," he said.

The city is budgeted to receive about $1.4 million from the flood control district for the work this year.

Security is a major concern of homeowners living along flood control channels, Walker said. Graffiti, drinking and other problems can join litter in the flood control channels when people have access to them, Walker said.

He said nearly all of his calls from residents are about the security and access issues.

The city will put up locked gates that water can flow through but will keep people out when the government gets complaints, Walker said.

Some residents in the neighborhood of Gowan Road believe a security gate may have contributed to flooding in their area this week. One of the smaller channels for residential areas, normally designed to handle "nuisance" water such as irrigation overflow, was blocked by a gate reinforced with perforated metal.

Mud stuck to the gate and apparently blocked water from coming through. Walker said the design is an old one and may not have been installed by the city. Homes in that area are two decades old, he said.

"We're not sure who put it there," he said. "The residents could have complained years ago, given the age of the development. It could have been the developer."

He said the biggest issue for his department is the free flow of water over the 120 miles of flood-control channels the city inherited from the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, the independent agency that builds the structures.

"Our primary concern is that water can flow through," he said. "The flood control channels are used to convey water. There should be no storage or dumping inside them."

Officials from Henderson and North Las Vegas echoed the calls to keep trash and anything else out of the flood-control channels.

Leslie Long, North Las Vegas environmental services manager, oversees twice-yearly inspections of the 30 miles of channels and six detention basins in her city. The flood control district is budgeted to give North Las Vegas $956,000 this year to keep the system moving.

It isn't always easy, she said. The natural, unlined channels can get clogged with vegetation, which has to be mowed.

Because the water and vegetation in those channels can be home to migratory birds, the city also has to stay within environmental regulations, including doing a bird survey each year, Long said.

Debris is another issue. Long said her city had a recent case where workers were storing bricks, vehicles and other construction needs inside a flood channel. The business was ordered to move it out and put up a fence to prevent another occurrence, she said.

"That would not be good if a flood occurred at that location."

Past floods have been painful teachers for local governments and residents.

"We have tried to be more diligent looking for debris in channels" since 1999, Curt Chandler, Henderson land development manager, said. But the quarterly inspections of the entire network in the city still find debris dumped deliberately.

His city is budgeted to receive $559,000 this year from the flood control district for maintenance.

Often debris appears to be dumped right over a block wall from a house, he said. Those same houses could be in danger of flood damage if debris forms an artificial dam, Chandler said.

"Debris can have an impact," he warned."

Bobby Shelton

COUNTY SPOKESMAN