Clark County to seek court ban on North Las Vegas wastewater

It doesn't look like much, just a gentle stream of clear water flowing into an open flood control channel in northeast Las Vegas.

But that water -- actually treated sewage from North Las Vegas' new $300 million wastewater treatment facility -- is causing quite a bit of indigestion for Clark County officials this week.

The effluent really hit the fan Wednesday, when North Las Vegas delivered to county officials a letter saying the city planned to immediately start discharging into a county-owned channel despite the county's refusal to grant permission.

The county, which contends the city can't legally use the channel unless it gets permission, was still formulating a response when North Las Vegas began flushing the wastewater, at a rate of about 2 million gallons a day, early Thursday morning.

Thursday afternoon, the county said it will be seeking a court order to stop North Las Vegas.

The county also provided the Review-Journal with an April legal opinion from the district attorney's office that said North Las Vegas doesn't have the right to use the channel.

Commissioner Tom Collins called the city's move "shocking, sad and pathetic" and said North Las Vegas is out of its league.

"A 10-year-old kid don't bully a grown man," he said Thursday. "It's not even a David and Goliath thing, because they don't have a stone. Or even a slingshot."

North Las Vegas officials maintain they always had the right to discharge there and were simply trying to be a good neighbor by seeking county approval. The county has known about potential plans to use the channel for years, city officials said, and has in the past approved plans that included using Sloan Channel as an option.

"For them to play these games now with the citizens of North Las Vegas is hypocritical," Mayor Shari Buck said .

The two entities have been fighting over the issue for months. The County Commission on Tuesday voted to again delay action on the matter, this time until July. North Las Vegas officials said they couldn't wait.

Dave Commons, the plant's administrator, said plans are to increase the amount of sewage the plant treats over the next month or so until it is handling all of North Las Vegas' sewage. The plant then would be discharging up to 25 million gallons a day into the channel, where it would flow for several miles into the Las Vegas Wash, then downstream to Lake Mead.

"In about 30 days, we plan to no longer rely on Las Vegas" to treat the city's sewage, Commons said.

Even operating at maximum capacity, the amount of water in the previously dry channel shouldn't exceed about 6 inches in depth, Commons said. On Thursday, the odorless flow looked to be an inch or two deep in spots.

City officials say the wastewater is safe to touch and treated to near-drinking water standards before it enters the channel. They also say releasing it there is no different than sending it into the Las Vegas Wash, which the valley's other wastewater treatment facilities already do.

But some county commissioners said they worry about safety because constituents walk and bike in the channel.

"Kids are going to be playing in this thing," Commissioner Steve Sisolak said. "What happens if some kid is skateboarding in the channel, falls and hits his head and drowns?"

North Las Vegas officials "never addressed my concerns," Sisolak said.

Commissioner Mary Beth Scow, whose district includes part of the channel, said she was shocked that North Las Vegas officials would abandon discussions and proceed with their plans.

"We had hoped they would be interested in working it out," she said. "It appears they are not. It makes it pretty difficult to work together" in the future.

Critics, including some commissioners, also have said building the plant was a foolish idea in the first place.

North Las Vegas officials decided to build the plant in 2005 so they could control wastewater rates. The decision was not made lightly but "after years of deliberate study and due diligence," Patrick Byrne, an attorney representing the city, wrote in a Wednesday letter to the county.

The city had planned to discharge the effluent via an $860 million regional pipeline, but that project was put on hold because declining growth and advances in sewage treatment reduced the need for it.

City officials said they could not have foreseen the economy's nosedive or the cancellation of the regional pipeline.

Now, without the channel, wastewater from the new plant essentially has no place to go.

The city also has pointed to a permit it received from the state's Division of Environmental Protection to discharge into the channel as proof it has the right to do so.

County officials disagree, and the state division has said its permission doesn't supersede local authority over use of the channel for discharge.

The plant was scheduled to open in May. The city has been paying Las Vegas roughly $30,000 a day to continue treating its wastewater. The city also must pay the bond debt on the project, which comes to about $18 million a year including interest. North Las Vegas is dealing with a $30.3 million shortfall for 2012.

The wastewater plant is outside North Las Vegas on land leased from the Air Force at Carey Avenue, south of Nellis Air Force Base.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.