MVTAB Approves 5-Year Flood Control Plan Update

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Clark County Regional Flood Control District (CCRFCD) has put more than $37 million into flood control facilities in the lower Moapa Valley area. And a five year flood control master plan update, completed in 2020, estimates that another $158 million in flood control infrastructure is still needed in the community.

The five year update was presented to the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) at a meeting held Wednesday, Feb. 24.

CCRFCD engineer Brian Rowley presented the plan to the board saying that the district is required to update its planning documents every five years. “The purpose of that is to take a look at the last five years and assess any progress that has been made in our flood control plan,” Rowley said. “It is also to review the plan and see if any modifications are warranted or changes need to be made.”

Rowley acknowledged that most of the progress made over the five year period had taken place at the northern end of Logandale, just below the Wells Siting diversion, where the new Logandale Levee had been constructed.

“That was a great project to protect those residents in that area and remove the flood zone behind that levee for some of the residents in that area,” Rowley said.

In addition, a detention basin and outfall facility to the northeast of the Logandale Fairgrounds had advanced to the final stages of design, Rowley said. This project would also include a concrete box culvert along Whipple Ave. to connect to the Muddy River.
“We expect that project to go to construction later this year,” he said.

A newly proposed facility was added to the plan along the Ingram alignment in Overton. This would intercept flood flows coming from the west along a network of proposed detention basins and channels called the western washes channel system and eventually connect it into the Muddy River. It would alleviate problems in the area of Ingram Ave., Rowley said.

“In working with maintenance folks out here, they told us about several drainage problems in that area that they wanted to be able to alleiate and fix,” Rowley said. “So that is what this plan will do.”

Other projects have appeared in the planning documents for many years including improvements along the Muddy River Flood Channel from Gubler to Lewis Ave. as well as a number of other detention basins and channels on both east and west washes coming into the valley. These remained in the document unchanged.

Rowley said that the proposed cost for all of the identified projects totalled more than $158.6 million.
“Of course, this isn’t something that is all done overnight,” Rowley said. “It will take many years to complete a step at a time.”

In the end, MVTAB member Brian Burris made a motion to recommend approval of the plan. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote.