By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted May 14, 2008
Overton sewer customers reaped a benefit last week when the Board of County Commissioners signed off on a universal rate increase for all Clark County Water Reclamation District customers. The modest increase in rates across the district was needed to implement a five year, $1.3 billion, capital improvement plan. This plan would include the badly needed reconditioning and maintenance on 2,000 miles of existing pipeline as well as the expansion of the CCWRD system to accomodate 160 million gallons per day. Included in this huge project is the construction of a new sewage treatment facility in Overton.
The Overton facility currently serves about 2400 customers in and around the downtown area. Up until last summer, the annual service charge on the Overton system was $91.32. That charge had not changed since 1989. Charges for new connections into the system were, at that time, set at $1500 per connection.
In recent years, the Overton facility, which was built in the early 1970s, was determined to be out of compliance with state and federal environmental standards. As a result, updates were mandated.
It was also determined that expansion to the Overton system was needed to allow capacity to expand the collection line throughout Logandale. This would prevent the proliferation of package treatment facilities at new development projects throughout the community.
But all this would come at a staggering cost of $138 million. For Moapa Valley ratepayers to absorb that cost alone would have more than tripled service rates sending them to over $400 per year. Connection fees would have skyrocketed to nearly $10,000 per connection.
Concerned about the impact that this would have on Overton residents and businesses, last summer Commissioner Bruce Woodbury proposed that the CCWRD work with a citizens advisory committee to explore a universal rate system to spread these types of costs. While that study took place, Overton ratepayers saw a more modest increase last July sending service charges to $179 per year.
The universal rates also allowed the CCWRD to fold in a more comprehensive district-wide capital improvement plan, spreading the costs of it across the district’s 200,000 customers in Clark County.
The universal service rate was proposed at $190.12 per year and would increase by about $12 per year over the next five years. This would pay for the reconditioning and maintenance of the existing system.
The universal connection fees were proposed to increase to $2547 and would pay for the growth and expansion of the system.
During a public hearing held before the County Commissioners on Tuesday, May 6, environmental advocates spoke in opposition to the universal rate plan.
Jane Feldman from the Las Vegas chapter of the Sierra Club praised the district for its plans to do preventive maintenance and implement new treatment technology. But she objected to the universal rates and connection charges. She feared that a reduction in hookup charges would spur leapfrog development in rural areas like Moapa Valley.
Launce Rake from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada had a similar criticism. “Developers are going to like this deal,” he said. “The urban core is being required to pay for development many miles away.”
But local resident, Gene Houston, who is a member of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee made comments which addressed these concerns. He pointed out that, because the Overton system was out of compliance, there had been no option but to update it.
“The cost for that would have been so high that we would have had to increase our population 10 fold to pay for it,” Houston said. “We were concerned for our valley because we were not looking for that high rate of growth.”
Universal rates would make it possible to do the updates to bring the facility into compliance with environmental code while allowing growth in the community to stay at a manageable rate, Houston explained.
Woodbury made it clear that developers in Moapa Valley were not reaping big benefits at the expense of Las Vegas customers. Several major developers in Moapa Valley had already agreed to participate in the cost of installing the expanded sewer line through much of Logandale. This was in addition to paying the new universal connection fee, Woodbury said.
“The developers in Moapa Valley have a pretty heavy burden in terms of creating infrastructure around their developments as well as paying these connection charges,” Woodbury said. “I think that this plan is fair and equitable. It is time that we treat everybody on an equal basis when it comes to these basic public safety, health and environmental issues.”
Commissioner Tom Collins echoed Woodbury’s desire to look at this issue on a more regional basis. “The fact is that the Muddy River water running through Overton goes down into Lake Mead and gets pumped into the Las Vegas valley for folks to drink,” Collins said. “Our options are to do this universal program or continue to have a problem with clean water for the Las Vegas valley. I don’t see it not being a benefit to have clean water coming from the Muddy River and becoming more of a whole society in paying for it.”
The new universal service rates will go into effect on July 1. The district will make the increase to connection fees effective on January 1, 2009.
