Environmental group ranks Nevada worst for water quality permits

Nevada trails all other states in keeping water quality permits current for major pollution sources, an environment group says.

The group Friends of the Earth says with only 10 major sources regulated under the Clean Water Act, Nevada had the highest percentage - 70 percent - of expired permits.

Only the District of Columbia had a worse percentage with all four of its major discharge permits expired.

But Allen Biaggi, administrator of the Nevada Environmental Protection Division, said the group's Clean Water Report Card is misleading. He said permits for four of the facilities in question are delayed while tighter water quality standards for Lake Mead are being adopted. The facilities include sewage treatment plants for Clark County, Las Vegas and Henderson, and the permit for Titanium Metals Corp.

The three municipal sewage treatment plants discharge a combined 130 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into Las Vegas Wash, which empties into Lake Mead, the primary drinking water supply for the Las Vegas Valley.

"I take great exception to the report, and it does not reflect the status of permits in the state of Nevada," Biaggi said.

While the five-year expiration date has lapsed, limits on discharges allowed under the permits are "in place and fully enforceable," Biaggi said

"For most of the Las Vegas facilities, we made a conscious decision to delay them until the new Lake Mead water quality standards are in place," he said.

The report was "a very unfair shot to take," Biaggi said.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Mark Whiteis-Helm said Nevada's bottom ranking "shows an extremely lax attitude toward water quality in Nevada."

Though Nevada's effort to enhance water quality to meet stricter standards is a step in the right direction, the state needs to "start by complying with the law," Whiteis-Helm said. "Not getting those permits renewed in a timely fashion is not the best way to get started."

New permits for the four Las Vegas Valley facilities are being drawn up or are under review, with their renewal expected by the end of the year, said a federal water official whose office oversees Nevada.

Alexis Strauss, water director for the EPA's regional office in San Francisco, said the four Las Vegas Valley permits in question plus the other three that have expired - for Reno, Sparks and Fallon - "are going to be issued really soon."

"I wouldn't be too concerned," she said about Nevada. "This is one of the few states where this backlog will be eliminated."

Other states, such as California, Texas, Louisiana and Ohio have hundreds of expired water discharge permits, she said.

Leo Drozdoff, chief of Nevada's Water Pollution Control Bureau, said permits for facilities in Reno, Sparks and Fallon have been delayed either to accommodate design changes at the wastewater treatment plants or to review discharge standards.

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