County, city to consider deal on Sloan Channel wastewater

Clark County and North Las Vegas officials will vote Wednesday on a proposed agreement to build a pipeline that would stop the city's discharge of treated wastewater into a county storm channel.

If approved by the County Commission and City Council, the agreement would end the legal battle both sides have waged over the issue.

The discharge from the city's $300 million wastewater treatment plant on Nellis Air Force Base into the county-owned Sloan Channel starting in June 2011 has rankled residents in an unincorporated area of the county because it has become a breeding ground for chironomid midges and mayflies.

Construction on the five-mile pipeline would start next summer. County officials said it could take at least 18 months and possibly longer to complete once work starts. The pipeline will extend five miles to a nonresidential area where the channel meets the Las Vegas Wash.

The pipeline is estimated to cost
$15 million with North Las Vegas putting up $8 million upfront. The county, which would oversee construction, would cover the remaining $7 million, and be reimbursed by the city over a 10-year period, county spokesman Erik Pappa said.

County Commissioner Tom Collins, whose district includes the channel, said the city's $8 million would come from its share of contributions to the Clean Water Coalition, a regional agency formed to build an $800 million pipeline to carry the valley's treated wastewater to Lake Mead. That money came from ratepayers. That project, however, isn't going forward.

City officials had little to say publicly about the proposed deal but noted that more information would be released by next week.

One question that remains unanswered is the source of the remaining $7 million that would be repaid to the county with interest. Officials indicated the money wouldn't come from higher water or sewer rates.

"No settlement is final until the ink is dry," the city said in a statement. "Both the County Commission and City Council must approve this proposed agreement."

The deal calls for the city to pay $109,000 for insect abatement, put up $50,000 as a deposit for maintenance of the channel and $50,000 a year until the pipeline is completed, and pay $1.5 million for future road and other improvements near the wastewater treatment plant, officials said.

As part of the proposed agreement, the coalition would be disbanded. The agency, a coalition of North Las Vegas, Henderson, Las Vegas and the county, has lived on because North Las Vegas had refused to disband it.

"I think it shows North Las Vegas and Clark County can work together," Collins said.

Mark Campbell, whose home abuts the channel, said he is pleased the problem's getting addressed but wishes the pipeline could be completed sooner. Despite regular cleanup of the channel by the city, his yard continues to be infested by insects.

"We're pleased something's going to get done, and the sooner the better," Campbell said. "If they built that, it would take care of the problem, and we can go back and live in peace over here."

North Las Vegas sued the county in federal court, arguing it has a right to discharge the treated wastewater into the channel. But the county called the discharge a nuisance and sought to stop it in state court.

County officials have maintained that the dry channel is intended to handle storm runoff and that the city's dumping was illegal.