Officials help last man out as new Lake Mead pipeline is completed

There was water, water everywhere Saturday as the second pipeline from Lake Mead to the Las Vegas Valley was opened -- and now there will be plenty to drink.

As part of the traditional mining ceremony to symbolize the completion of a tunnel, miner Joe O'Connell emerged in an elevator-sized basket from the wet, 380-foot mine shaft blasted into the granite of the River Mountains over the past four years.

Three officials -- U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Gov. Kenny Guinn and County Commissioner Mary Kincaid, who also is chairwoman of the Southern Nevada Water Authority -- were lowered with a project supervisor to bring the last man out of the 4-mile long, $80 million tunnel on Saddle Island, a half-mile from the lake shore.

"My feet are soaked from standing in the water," Kincaid said. "It really wasn't scary, but when I saw all the water running down the walls, I asked about it. When they told me it was river water coming through the walls, I just thought, 'I hope it doesn't knock down these walls. There's a lot of water when you get to the bottom.' "

The only casualty on this day may have been Guinn's new shoes.

"I had to lift myself by the arms up because there was so much water on the ground, and I have to wear these shoes again tonight," Guinn said. "I didn't bring another pair from Carson City."

The pipeline should allow Southern Nevada to receive its full share of Colorado River water for the first time -- and just in time. The Southern Nevada Water Authority predicted earlier this month that for the first time, the Las Vegas Valley will need more than its 300,000 acre-foot allocation of water from the river this year.

The second pipeline, or "second straw," will handle 47,000 acre-feet in addition to the 253,000 acre-feet per-year capacity of the current pipeline, which opened in 1971.

The new pipe is part of a $2.2 billion expansion project -- paid for by the extra quarter-cent added to the sales tax last April. Southern Nevada will also get a new treatment plant in 2002 that will nearly double the amount of water -- 700 million gallons a day -- made available to valley residents.

"I think that the people of this valley really stepped forward when they approved the quarter-cent sales tax that helped pay for this pipeline," Guinn said. "That shows they know how important water is in a desert.

"People may not think about it on a day to day basis because they turn on their taps and there it is, but if these two straws ever got clogged up for a couple of weeks, you would notice a tremendous difference."

The value of the second pipeline couldn't be overemphasized, Reid agreed.

"Water is one of the most important things to allow Las Vegas to remain the entertainment capital of the world, and I think this will allow us to provide for the next 60 or 70 years because the capacity is tremendous."

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