Affordable Concepts Completes Water Treatment Facilities

Construction Connection
By Scott Smith

As Las Vegas begins to join the ranks of major metropolitan areas, it begins to outgrow much of the infrastructure that just a decade ago promised to see it well into the 21st Century.

Fortunately, AGC contractors are on hand to ensure the city and the whole of southern Nevada can keep pace with the 7,000 people each month that continue to relocate to the region. That fact was driven home recently when the city celebrated Affordable Concepts’ completion of the final piece of a $200 million improvement and expansion to Las Vegas’ Water Pollution Control Facility operated by the public works department.
“Wastewater treatment is a critical component of our growing city, yet it is a factor that typically doesn’t get a lot of attention,” said Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese at the facility’s dedication on May 24. “In recent years, a number of improvement and expansion projects have been completed in order to deal with unprecedented growth in the Las Vegas valley and to meet increasingly stringent federal and state standards. Through this period of virtually constant construction, the treatment plant has continuously been able to meet its federally mandated treatment requirements.”

Affordable Concepts and its team of subcontractors, including All Electric, Dorwin Systems, Harrison Door Company, Jetstream Construction, Pahor Mechanical and Robert’s Roofing, expanded and improved the plant’s “work space,” building an operations and maintenance building which centralizes the plant’s computer-controlled operations and provides work space for nearly 70 employees of the department’s maintenance, operations, engineering and purchasing systems, as well as space for some specialized technicians. It also provides a storage area for the department’s boat that is used to monitor water quality at Lake Mead.

The plant site, at 6005 E. Vegas Valley Dr., near Nellis Boulevard, began operation in 1958. It treats wastewater from Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Henderson and Clark County operate their own facilities.

The Affordable Concepts project puts the finishing touches on several improvements that will allow the plant to increase its treatment capacity from 66 million gallons per day to 91 MGD – enough to meet the city’s needs for the next 10 to 12 years.
The project features a “biologically nutrient removal” system that uses biological rather than chemical methods to treat the water. The system was put into operation in 2003, and reduces the reliance on and the expense of chemicals to clean the water. The expansion of this system will help the city continue to meet strict federal standards regarding nutrients in order to protect the Lake Mead environment and ecosystems. The system achieves this through use of activated sludge which breaks down ammonia using biological processes and a filtration system that removes phosphorous particles.

Henderson also is undergoing expansion of its plant (see sidebar) and Clark County, whose facility can treat about 110 MGD from throughout the county – including the Strip and Laughlin – is looking to increase its capacity to about 130 MGD in the near future.
Las Vegas’ facility recently received a 2003 Platinum Peak Performance award from the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. The city’s Water Pollution Control Facility earned the award for complete compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Las Vegas is one of only 18 agencies to earn the award for five consecutive years.