Water treatment plant goes high-tech

Stephen Curran

Monday, May 24, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

Las Vegas officials today celebrated $200 million in improvements to a public utility many area residents prefer not to think about.

City leaders, including Mayor Pro Tem Gary Reese, were on hand this morning at the Las Vegas Water Treatment Facility to tout its recent expansion, which includes new high-tech processes to treat the more than 66 million gallons of sewage a day that come through the plant.

The move is part of an agency effort to plan for growth throughout the city. Planners estimate the expansion will help the plant keep pace with growth through 2015, said David Mendenhall, environmental manager for the Las Vegas Department of Public Works.

The project, part of an "almost constant" series of improvements to the plant, was funded through sewer system user charges and connection fees, Debby Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the department, said.

Mendenhall said, "Since 1989 we've pretty much always been under one form of construction or another."

The most notable addition to the 160-acre plant is an expanded Biological Nutrient Removal system, which uses biological instead of chemical methods to treat the water, he said. The city, already under federal pressure to meet stricter standards to remove nutrients from the water before it reaches Lake Mead, had been using an ammonia-based process to filter toxins, Ackerman said.

The newer system, although more labor-intensive, cuts chemical costs, she said.

Scientists are also looking into future systems that could filter toxins from prescription drugs in waste products, Mendenhall said, but added that such advances are at least 10 years away, as researchers determine the impact of such chemicals in the water supply.

"It's really a growing field of research," he said. "But they're nowhere near having that. That (10 years) might be generous."

Las Vegas Public Works handles wastewater for Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Henderson has its own treatment facility, as does Clark County for the unincorporated urban areas.

Handling about 110 million gallons a day, the Clark County treatment facility is the largest in the state, takes effluent from unincorporated parts of the county, including The Strip, Laughlin and Blue Diamond, said Marty Flynn, spokesman for the Clark County Water Reclamation District.

That facility is also bracing for growth and is now accepting bids for two large-scale projects that would increase that plant's capacity to 130 million gallons a day, said Bill Shepherd, compliance and regulatory affairs administrator for the reclamation district.

The expansion will help plan for growth anticipated in the unincorporated county until 2030, Shepherd said.

"Obviously we try to stay ahead of the growth," said Shepherd, who estimated that 7,500 people move into the Las Vegas Valley each month. "That (the growth) is amazing to me."

The expanded Las Vegas plant can now treat up to 91 million gallons each day, he said.

Other changes include a new centralized building, which houses a high-tech control room for monitoring the facility and a westside satellite plant, he said.

Las Vegas' Water Pollution Control Facility is slated to receive an award this week from the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, the fifth straight year the sewage treatment plant will be honored for its complete compliance with environmental rules.