| MVWD Hosts Open House At New Treatment Plants | |||
| By Vernon Robison Moapa Valley Progress Published April 22, 2009 The Moapa Valley Water District (MVWD) held an Open House event on Wednesday, April 15, to celebrate the opening of two new arsenic treatment plants recently put into operation. The arsenic treatment project which was begun in 2005, involved the construction of two water treatment facilities; one at MVWD Arrow Canyon well site and the other at the district’s Baldwin Springs facility; both in Warm Springs. The two plants are designed to remove the trace amounts of arsenic from the water before it is delivered to the customers. |
 MVWD staff members take members of the public on a guided tour of the new arsenic treatment plant at the Arrow Canyon well site during an open house held April 15. |
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| In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency adopted new standards for arsenic in drinking water to 10 parts per billion (ppb), down from 50 ppb. The MVWD drinking water sources were found to contain about 17 ppb. That difference of 7 ppb is indiscernible in the appearance or taste of the water, say MVWD officials. But the district was required nevertheless to bring itself into compliance. The deadline for compliance was January 23, 2009.
“I am happy to say that this project was completed on January 22, one day before the deadline,” said MVWD Board Chairman, James Robison. “I believe that we were the only one in rural Nevada who made it before the deadline.” The public was invited to an opening ceremony and to tour both of the facilities. The Arrow Canyon plant has five filter units capable of treating up to 4,500 gpm from the two wells on site. The Baldwin Springs plant has two filter units capable of treating up to 1,750 gpm from the Baldwin Springs and the Jones Springs facilities combined. The total cost for engineering and construction of the two plants was $5.5 million. MVWD partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development to finance the project. Financing included about $2.5 million in grant funding and the remaining $3 million in low interest loans. Rate increases were also approved to repay the loans and to cover the increase in operations and maintenance expense that the plants would incur on an ongoing basis. Originally the district had anticipated the need for three years of 18% rate increases to pay these expenses. But then the district sought, and was awarded, a State of Nevada AB-198 Grant for $2.23 million to assist in the project. “We had not comtemplated getting this originally,” said MVWD General Manager Brad Huza. “But the timing was just right and the stars aligned in our favor. We were able to roll back to only doing two years of 18% increases.” |
