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By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 | 3:41 p.m.
Sun coverage
Clark County commissioners Tuesday denied North Las Vegas’ request to use a wash to discharge treated wastewater from the city’s new sewage treatment plant.
The 6-1 vote to deny the request, with Commissioner Mary Beth Scow voting alone in support of the proposal, came after more than a month of debate and numerous complaints from commissioners that the city wasn’t being cooperative.
North Las Vegas has spent millions of dollars building its own treatment plant so it no longer has to rely on Las Vegas’ plant, but the city’s plan was for the treated water to flow through the Sloan Channel to Lake Mead.
Since the channel is in the unincorporated county, the city proposed an agreement that would allow the new facility to access the county’s channel. Under the proposal, the city would pay the county $50,000 each year for maintenance of the channel.
But county commissioners expressed frustration that the city didn’t get permission to use the county’s channel before the plant was built.
In a previous meeting, commissioners asked the city to notify residents along the channel about the plan. North Las Vegas recently sent out letters to 10,000 residents, North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Anita Wood told commissioners Tuesday.
But Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said the notice was hidden in a newsletter and most residents probably didn’t notice it.
Commissioner Steve Sisolak also pointed out that the city’s agreement with Nellis Air Force Base calls for the base to switch its sewage treatment service from the county to North Las Vegas.
Serving Nellis currently generates $1.25 million in revenue for the county each year, Commissioner Larry Brown said.
North Las Vegas officials said the city has the right to use the channel regardless of whether the county approves the agreement, but the county’s legal counsel disagreed.
Commissioner Tom Collins, who represents much of North Las Vegas, moved to oppose the agreement, saying the city failed to work with the county on its concerns.
“Cooperation has been almost nonexistent, and it’s a shame,” he said. “I really thought things were improving over there.”
Collins said the city is welcome to return with another plan, but he said he didn’t see how the current discussions were going to work out.
Commission Chairwoman Susan Brager called it an “unfortunate situation,” saying she didn’t want to kill the project, but she didn’t know about the Nellis component and felt the city wasn’t forthcoming with information.
When was it determined that there was a question about permission being required or not? Any bets that no problems were foreseen until after the deal with Nellis turned up?
Seems kind of late in the game to tell NLV they can't do this.
Maybe North Las Vegas should have gotten permission BEFORE they built the $240,000,000 facility. If they saved that $240,000,000 and the $145,000,000 they are spending on a BRAND NEW City Hall for THEMSELVES, maybe they could have averted laying off 188 employees lat June. YOU THINK?!?!?!
This problem was foreseen before it was started.The City of North Las Vegas built this plant on The Nellis Air Base to try to avoid any issues that would come up,such as dumping waste-water into the Sloan Wash without any concern or regards to the residents of the east end of the Las Vegas Valley.
What are the technical and scientific reasons? Are the reasons for this decision open to the public?
The treated waste water from the City of Las Vegas and the Clark County Water treatment plant ALL FLOW into the LAS VEGAS Wash.
The Las Vegas Wash is the only conduit to Lake Mead through which ALL waste water passes, or at least 99%.
The Waste Water that comes out of the Clark County WW treatment plant is incredibly clean but it goes into a wash where transients and their dogs eat, live and defecate. Rain runoff from Las Vegas streets washes oil, pesticides, manure, poisons, heavy metals and just JUNK into the Las Vegas Wash.
There is nothing wrong with the WW Treatment water - it's the Las Vegas Wash that poisons the water and Lake Mead.
My question is, where was North Las Vegas Mayor Shari Buck? You don't show leadership by sending a first-term Councilwoman.
This is yet another failure in the ongoing saga that is the Shari Buck Administration. She has all but checked out at City Council meetings, often without providing solutions of her own or building consensus around her own solutions.
In addition, Mayor Buck did not show up in Carson City to lobby for North Las Vegas positions on the C-Tax distribution and redistricting. But Councilwoman Wood and Councilman Cherchio did.
Shari Buck is a smarter woman than what we are seeing. She shouldn't sit up on the dais and pout, rather now is the time for her to do the job the citizens of North Las Vegas elected her to do and lead the next two years.