Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1998 | 10:50 a.m.
Gov. Bob Miller and Southern Nevada water officials plan to turn shovelfuls of desert dirt on Thursday at the River Mountains for a $146 million treatment plant that will prevent disease outbreaks and equipment failures.
The ceremony is hailed as "Liquid Gold: a Celebration of Water."
The state-of-the-art River Mountains Water Treatment plant should help prevent outbreaks of waterborne organisms such as cryptosporidiosis and giardia. A 1994 crypto outbreak killed 43 Las Vegas residents and affected 132 others, most of them immune-compromised people.
When it begins treating 150 million gallons a day of Lake Mead water in the year 2002, the River Mountains plant should prevent failures such as the February 1997 breakdown of the Alfred Merritt Smith Treatment Facility.
Fortunately, the 1997 facility failure occurred for three days in winter, not when the plant has to treat 480 million gallons a day in hot summer months, said Neil Laudati, water authority community affairs specialist.
The new plant, east of Henderson on Burkholder Boulevard, is one of the largest public works contracts ever attempted in Clark County.
The plant features ozone for disinfecting the lake's waters to ensure the highest quality, Laudati said.
With extra water treatment, Southern Nevada also will be able to draw its full share of the Colorado River -- 300,000 acre feet per year. An acre-foot can supply water to a Las Vegas family of five for a year.
Once the plant is operating, the water authority hopes it will become an magnet for educating children and adults. Tours of the plant will help explain how water is treated from the lake to the tap.
"The Southern Nevada Water Authority works closely with nearby residents," Laudati said.
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