Panel raises bar on water quality

The Nevada Environmental Commission Wednesday voted unanimously to toughen water quality standards and restore wetlands that can help remove bacteria and chemical pollutants naturally from the Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead.

The commission asked for a report in three months on progress in the wash after touring eroded channels there Tuesday.

Commission Chairman Mel Close Jr. said he feared that nothing would happen in the wash to prevent erosion and control pollution until the federal Environmental Protection Agency takes action. The wash waters lead to Lake Mead, a reservoir that supplies 20 million people with drinking water.

Longtime commission member Willie Molini said the panel has been encouraging local agencies to rebuild the wetlands as a natural water treatment resource for more than 20 years. "It's never been viewed as the resource it could be," he said. "It's viewed as a sewage ditch."

A standard for total suspended solids, particles which cloud the water and scour away the channel banks up to 10 feet a year, was added to the regulations. Although state officials said the wash will violate the standard, the commission insisted on the 135 milligrams per liter of water limit.

The commission also set a goal that will allow fishing in the entire lake within three years. Fishing is restricted in the wash and part of Las Vegas Bay while scientists study the amounts of pesticides and other chemicals found in fish.

Biologist Larry Paulson, a member of the Lake Mead Water Quality forum, said the group that has met for a year to study pollution issues in drinking water is trying to shape a comprehensive water quality program. The discovery of the rocket fuel booster perchlorate, high bacteria after floods and chemical pollutants in local drinking water triggered the forum's formation.

In other action, the commission asked the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to investigate an accountant's report on the Clark County Health District. The Health District's air pollution control program came under fire after the Nevada Environmental Coalition, an independent watchdog group, complained that $1.1 million in environmental funds was missing.

The commission could set a formal hearing if the investigation finds the Health District is failing to do its job to protect public health and welfare by curbing air pollution.

archive