Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.
The Henderson developer building 5,000 new homes on a site with radioactive and toxic ground water says construction will remain on schedule.
Jim Rhodes, of Rhodes Design and Development Corp., said Tuesday that the company will submit plans to deal with the contaminated ground water in less than a month. State environmental officials stopped construction at the site last week.
An unknown source of low-level radiation is contaminating the ground water less than a mile from the Las Vegas Wash. The wash enters Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's drinking water supply.
Rhodes' development, called Palm City, did not seek a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers or a discharge permit from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection before it started grading. Home construction has not begun at the site. Work on a golf course has been allowed to continue.
State officials fear that the development, with its 18-hole golf course and home landscaping, will cause the ground water to rise, a condition that would cause the radioactivity to become more of a threat to homes and a proposed elementary school.
Historically, the area has been home to natural-spring waters bubbling to the surface, forming wetlands.
The state will not approve any home building at the 570-acre site until the company figures out how to keep runoff containing radiation and chemical contamination off the surface and out of the wash, said Jim Williams, supervisor for water quality at the state division.
Paul Kenner, Rhodes' director of land development, said the company planned to build a drainage system under the golf course to keep contaminated water underground.
The city of Henderson approved restricted grading at the site, bounded by Olsen Drive on the east, the former city landfill to the north and Sunset Road to the south.
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