Sloan Channel controversy:Water treatment plant operating without county’s blessing

The Sloan Channel, a dry concrete trench designed to safely move storm water downhill to the Las Vegas Wash and eventually to Lake Mead, now looks a little more like the Sloan River.

On June 9, North Las Vegas officials began releasing effluent from the newly constructed North Las Vegas Wastewater Treatment Facility despite the county's contention that the city has no right to use the channel.

Initial plans for discharging the effluent from the facility included use of the Sloan Channel and an intra-agency regional pipeline. But plans for the pipeline were scuttled due to changing economics and improved wastewater treatment technology .

The Sloan Channel is the shortest and most efficient route for the effluent, but North Las Vegas and Clark County have failed to come to terms regarding its use. While county officials don't dispute the channel's capacity to handle the 25 million gallons per day of effluent the North Las Vegas Wastewater Treatment Facility could release to the channel at maximum capacity, they contend that the alteration of the use of the channel will create new expenses and problems.

"Kid s play in there," said Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, whose District B includes the North Las Vegas facility and much of the channel. "People walk through there all the time, but with water in there, you're going to have people slipping and getting hurt."

Although no one is supposed to be in the channel, and it is fenced off, there are numerous breaks in the fence and access points. On the first day North Las Vegas began releasing water into the channel, children were seen riding their bicycles through it creating rooster tails of effluent.

North Las Vegas began planning the facility in 2005, in part to gain control of the city's wastewater treatment, rather than piggybacking on the Las Vegas Water Pollution Control Facility. North Las Vegas pays Las Vegas approximately $30,000 per day to send its sewage to the Las Vegas facility.

The North Las Vegas facility is the fourth area municipal wastewater treatment plant. Clark County and Las Vegas facilities are about a mile away from each other on the east end of the valley. The Henderson facility, which doubles as a bird preserve, is approximately two miles southeast of the Clark County Water Reclamation Plant. Several casinos and other entities have smaller water treatment plants onsite.

There are residential neighborhoods adjacent to both the county and city facilities, but those homes were built after construction of the waste treatment plants. The North Las Vegas facility is about a mile outside the North Las Vegas city limits, on property leased from Nellis Air Force Base, adjacent to Sunrise Manor. The plant is across the street from homes, a church and a county park adjacent to an elementary school.

The distance outside the city the plant serves isn't unusual. The Las Vegas Water Pollution Control Facility is well outside Las Vegas city lines, too.

The North Las Vegas facility sparked controversy early in a Sunrise Manor Town Advisory Board meeting. Because the North Las Vegas facility is on federal property, county residents had no say on its construction.

A request was made by North Las Vegas to allow a variance for standard curbs so the city could implement landscaping and pedestrian and equestrian trails along the property. Sunrise Manor residents complained about the plant, which brought them no benefit but was on their doorstep, and expressed concerns about odors and traffic.

Two members of the Sunrise Manor Town Advisory Board squared off on the issue during and after the meeting. Michael Dias, who was chairman of the board at the time of the meeting and has recently resumed that position, spoke out against the plant. Russell Collins, who held the chair position in the two years between Dais' chairmanship stints, defended the facility.

"The whole thing was a joke," Dias said. "They weren't asking if we wanted the facility there. They were just offering to let us help decide how the landscaping looked."

Collins, who is with the 99th Civil Engineer Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, asserted that the facility would be odor- free and that the focus should be on the landscaping and amenities offered by North Las Vegas. In the flurry of the controversy, no variance was approved and the view of the plant is shielded from the park with a simple earthen hill.

At a recent tour of the plant, Collins made a bold offer.

" I believe in this facility," he said. "I think it would be a great gesture, when we bring it online, to toast with the water coming from it. I'm willing to do that, and I look forward to that day."

Since the plant began operating without pomp and circumstance, the toast never happened. Collins hopes to schedule that toast at a later date. The continuing operation will probably be up to the courts now, as both sides dig in for a long, hard fight.

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.