Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
Trash and pieces of concrete stewing in pools of rain water trapped beneath downtown Las Vegas are responsible for the foul odor that has plagued the Fremont Street area for years, City Engineer Charles Kajkowski said Thursday.
There is no specific timetable or estimated cost for the cleanup, but Kajkowski said it will happen this year.
The problem was caused by trash and pieces of concrete "about the size of a fist" that made their way into the city's storm-water pipes. The debris created some water backups, especially around areas where the pipes sag, he said.
"It smells like rotten eggs. Me and my friends hold our noses if we smell it," said Meghan Higgins, a cashier at the King's Gaming kiosk at the Fremont Street Experience pedestrian mall.
Michael Verbsky, who sells coffee from a kiosk at the mall, said the smell wafts through the air as often as a couple of times a week.
"It reminds me of walking into a really old tavern where the men's room hasn't been cleaned in a while," he said. "I think it keeps people wondering how clean it really is here because the mall is spotless ... and then all of a sudden the odor pops up."
At The Saloon Bar & Grill near the Las Vegas Boulevard end of the Fremont Street pedestrian mall, manager Jacob Buscemi said that while it may take a lot of money to find and fix the problem, it's worth it.
"You have to fix it because of the tourism. No one wants to be here if it smells," he said.
For more than 10 years the city has fought the stench with weekly flushings of the worst smelling areas, plus putting pine-scented fragrance blocks into some of the pipes there.
Then in August the City Council awarded a $96,731 contract to Brown and Caldwell Environmental Engineers and Consultants of Las Vegas to find the specific cause of the odor.
Using a video camera mounted on a small-wheeled vehicle that Kajkowski said resembles a child's toy, Brown and Caldwell searched the drainage pipes.
Over the years, the smell has been most noticeable along Fremont Street between Third Street and Las Vegas Boulevard, but the city had a wider area searched. The camera went through pipes under Stewart, Ogden, Bridger, and Carson avenues, as well as Fremont Street between Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Kajkowski said there were blockages caused by concrete and trash at more than a dozen spots around downtown. There were also some areas the camera couldn't reach because of debris in the way.
It appeared the trash -- such as cups, papers, and bags -- just washed into the pipes through storm-water drains, he said.
"But the construction debris, where that came from I don't know," he said adding that they found no evidence of anyone dumping into the drainage system, which ultimately leads storm-water to the Las Vegas Wash and then Lake Mead.
City staff will review the problems to see if the city can clean out the pipes on its own, he said. City officials will also look into repairing the sagging pipes, which he said might have some cracks or little holes, but are not broken.
"The good news is we believe we understand what's happening because the camera found the problems," he said. "It's obvious the construction debris and the garbage and the standing water are a breeding ground for the odor."
Kajkowski said similar problems have been found in other storm-water pipes around the city, but there were more complaints about this area, which he attributed to the relatively high number of pedestrians around Fremont.
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