65-acre flooding fix in works

WASHINGTON -- Some property owners living at the foot of Sunrise Mountain have waited more than eight years for help with flash flooding. Next week, Congress finally will take up a possible solution.

A bill set for a hearing in the House would convey 65 acres of federal land to Clark County to become part of a 100-acre effort to divert floodwater along an earthen berm and into a detention basin.

It's about time, said Ronald Jensen, a retired schoolteacher who lives on Los Feliz Street. Jensen and 81 other homeowners petitioned the county for help in January 1999 after fierce flooding four months earlier.

Jensen said he built his home more than 30 years ago, but flooding has worsened as development has sprawled near the mountain.

"It is nerve-wracking," Jensen said. "When we moved up here, everything coming off the mountain ran in the natural waterways.

"Now when it rains we get waterfalls pouring off the mountain," he said.

George Jenkins, another homeowner on Los Feliz Street, said flash floods have been a problem since 1982, but as many as 12 houses in the area were flooded in 1998. He said smaller, more recent floods washed out roads and fences.

"I would like to see this rectified soon. Every time a large storm comes over I worry about getting flooded out," Jenkins said.

Bills on the land issue introduced previously in Congress did not have hearings. But on Tuesday, a bill by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., will be discussed in the House Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is co-sponsor.

If the bill is approved by Congress, the project will take about a year to complete, according to Gale Fraser, general manager of the Clark County Regional Flood Control District.

A Clark County Regional Flood Control District report on the 1998 flood said a sewer line was ruptured, a natural gas line was exposed and 13 houses and two mobile homes were damaged.

"In 1998, it rained extremely hard on the mountain right behind us and flooded all the washes," said Tammie Tidwell, a homemaker who also lives on Los Feliz.

"The wash closest to us overflowed like it was a raging river, into our property and into our pool, causing quite a bit of damage," she said.

Tidwell said her home fared better than others because it was elevated above ground level.

Fraser said 1,200 acres, 2,500 homes and three schools could be at risk if another large flood hits the area.

The main delay is that the property desired by the county was designated in the 1970s as part of a 10,240-acre "instant study area" for potential wilderness.

"Wilderness study areas were created with federal legislation, so they have to be removed or resolved with federal legislation," said Gayle Marrs-Smith, a Bureau of Land Management botanist in Las Vegas.

Marrs-Smith said the BLM is not expected to oppose redesignating the 65 acres sought by the county.

Launce Rake, a spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, an environmental group, said the flooding problem is an unfortunate outcome of development sprawl in the valley.

"While it is a shame to lose any wilderness area, especially one so close to the urban area, the reason they need to do that, unfortunately, is because they built so much housing up the side of the mountain," Rake said. "It is part and parcel with sprawl and uncontrolled development."

Fraser said, "The mountain rain slope is very steep, and it is regrettable that anybody gets flooded; but that is why we have a master plan to afford everybody some protection."

Porter said in a statement the bill will enhance county flood control "which saves lives every year in Southern Nevada."

Contact reporter Jason C. Green at jgreen@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.