Water authority goes deep with extension

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 | 9:52 a.m.

Contractors for the Southern Nevada Water Authority are assembling pieces of a huge pipe that should bring cleaner water from Lake Mead to faucets throughout the urban area.

Transported from Texas, the pieces of pipe will allow the first intake at 1,050 feet above sea level in the lake to bring water up from about 50 feet deeper. Like a lot of recent water authority work, this is related to the ongoing issues of drought and demand that have caused the lake level to drop by about 80 feet.

As the water level has fallen, lower-quality water has come closer to the first intake. While the water authority has a second, deeper intake to help supply water to the urban area, water authority engineers wanted to keep higher quality water in the first supply line.

"Just by dropping it 50 feet deeper, we can remove or substantially reduce the impact of that water," said Marc Jensen, water authority engineering director.

The $6.4 million project should be on-line in late June or July, water authority officials said. That is important because the hot summer weather helps concentrate impurities at the surface, Jensen said.

"This is a very fast-track project," Jensen said.