Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Reclaimed water seen as wave of future

County bid to use treated wastewater to irrigate public parks gets under way

Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. The Clark County Water Reclamation District's main treatment plant is shown at the east end of Flamingo Road. District officials want to build a pipeline from the facility to the southwest valley for large-scale delivery of reclaimed water. COURTESY OF THE CLARK COUNTY WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT

In what Clark County officials hope is only the beginning of an increased effort to conserve drinking water, Silver Bowl Sports Complex is poised to become the first public park in the Las Vegas Valley to be irrigated with recycled wastewater.

Starting next year, officials at the Clark County Water Reclamation District plan to use the park near Sam Boyd Stadium as a pilot program to show the public the benefits of watering grass with reclaimed water instead of drinking water.

Peter Archuleta, general manager for the reclamation district, said people using the park will have more to worry about from pesticides and "pets wandering around" than from recycled water.

"There is no documented incident of a health problem related to the use of reclaimed water," said Marty Flynn, reclamation district spokesman.

Flynn added that reclaimed water already is used extensively throughout the South and the Southwest.

It's nothing new in Las Vegas, either. Nevada Power has used treated wastewater from the county as a coolant at its power plants since 1958. The Desert Rose and Wildhorse golf courses first began using reclaimed water in the 1960s, and numerous other courses have followed suit.

What is new is the reclamation district's approach to water recycling.

"The philosophy in the past was come and get it," Flynn said. Now the district wants to spend tens of millions of dollars to make it easier for people to free up drinking water by irrigating with treated wastewater instead.

The change is being fueled by increased demand for the cheaper, reclaimed water and by mounting concerns over the valley's water supply in the face of ongoing, record drought in the region.

The work at Silver Bowl park is merely a prelude, Archuleta said.

The district plans to build a main pipeline from its main water treatment facility at the east end of Flamingo Road to the southwest part of the valley for large-scale delivery of reclaimed water to parks, school yards, golf courses and cemeteries.

The first phase of that project, with an estimated cost of $23.7 million, includes two pumping stations, three small reservoirs and about 10 miles of 36-inch pipeline from the treatment plant to the corner of Sunset Road and Las Vegas Boulevard. Archuleta said the first phase could enter the design stage by the end of this summer and be built in about three years.

The line later would be extended another seven miles, at an estimated cost of about $17 million, to the area near Warm Springs Road and Durango Drive.

Recycled or reclaimed water is treated to a level considered safe for full-body contact, but it is not disinfected to as high a level as drinking water.

The reclaimed water the county plans to use at Silver Bowl park and elsewhere will be treated to the same level as the wastewater released into the Las Vegas Wash to flow back into Lake Mead.

"Reclaimed water at the standards we have is as clean or cleaner than the drinking water in most of the world," Flynn said.

An estimated 72,250 people use the fields at Silver Bowl Sports Complex each year, not including tournaments from other states or special events. More than 99 million gallons of water treated to drinking-water standards was used at the 89-acre park last year. Across the valley in 2003, county-maintained parks were irrigated with more than 1.1 billion gallons of drinkable water.

New rules clearing the reclamation district to own pipelines for nonpotable water are expected to be approved when the County Commission meets Tuesday in its capacity as the reclamation district board.

An agreement between the district and the county's Parks and Community Services Department for Silver Bowl park will follow later in June.

Patricia Marchese, director of parks and community services for the county, would start using recycled water at valley parks tomorrow if she could.

"We're excited," Marchese said. "We have so many problems with water, with the availability of water (in Southern Nevada). As the parks department, we feel like we have to be a good citizen in our valley."

The two most likely candidates for future conversion are Sunset Park at Sunset Road and Eastern Avenue and Desert Breeze Park at Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive, Marchese said.

It will take about a year to convert Silver Bowl park to reclaimed water, Archuleta said. County officials will use that time to meet with the public and address any concerns people may have about the safety of reclaimed water.

Jeremy and Kelly Richmond live across the street from the park, and they take their son Tate, 4, and daughter, Cenise, 2, there to play about once a week.

They said they were more concerned with the recent removal of some of the park's playground equipment than the use of recycled water on its fields.

"They already use fertilizer and all kinds of other chemicals on the grass," Jeremy Richmond said with a shrug while he watched his son play on the swings.

"If they can grow crops with it, and we eat the crops after, I don't see why not," Kelly Richmond said.

Betty Shapiro also supports the switch to reclaimed water, especially if the alternative is to take out the grass there. "Kids need grass," she said as she spent part of the afternoon in the park with her 6-year-old granddaughter.

The park will maintain a separate, potable water system to supply drinking fountains and wash basins in the restrooms.

Flynn said county officials ultimately hope to achieve the same level of public buy-in as Tucson, Ariz., which launched its reclaimed water program with a single golf course in 1984. Last year, the city of Tucson delivered 3.7 billion gallons of reclaimed water to about 600 sites and saved enough drinking water to supply more than 33,700 families.

Tucson uses more than 100 miles of pipeline to deliver reclaimed water to 14 golf courses, 25 city parks, and 40 schools, including the University of Arizona and Pima Community College.

Flynn said the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Clark County School District have expressed interest in using reclaimed water on turf and landscaping. UNLV's practice fields at Sam Boyd Stadium could be hooked up to the system at the same time as Silver Bowl park, if not sooner, he said.

Because of the need for a separate set of pipes, widespread use of reclaimed water to irrigate the yards at individual homes is not considered economically viable.

Currently, the valley's largest reclaimed water program is in Henderson, where 2.7 billion gallons of highly treated wastewater was used last year, at a peak volume of 17 million gallons a day, to irrigate nine of the city's 12 golf courses and landscaping along Boulder Highway.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District and the City of Las Vegas jointly operate two reclamation facilities that supply roughly 8.5 million gallons of water a day to 15 golf courses.

North Las Vegas presently does not deliver recycled water, but the city is evaluating the feasibility of a reclamation facility.