MVTAB Approves Plans For Sewer Plant Lift Station

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board approved a project being proposed by representatives of the Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) during a meeting held last month. The project entailed replacing a sewer system lift station, pumps and force main pipeline on Lewis Ave. near Deer Street in Overton.

Kim Adler, Community Outreach and Communications official for CCWRD, said that the district staff had made efforts over the past 18 months to reach out to the residents who were neighbors of this project.

“We got some feedback from the residents through that process,” Adler said. “And the design that you will see tonight incorporates that feedback.”

CCWRD Design Manager Scott Hansen went over some of the details of the project with board members in the meeting.

Hansen said that an existing lift station is in need of being replaced. The station, which is located at Lewis Ave and Deer street, pumps wastewater from that location through about 7500 feet of pipeline to the Overton treatment plant facility on the east bench of the valley. The existing station was built in 1987, he said.

The CCWRD has acquired a 2.9 acre parcel just south of the current lift station where they are proposing to build the new facility, Hansen explained. The project also includes installing a new pipeline from the new lift station, across the river and to the treatment facility to the east.

“Our plan is to rebuild the lift station structure on our site,” Hansen said. “Once those facilites are built and in operation, we will take down the old facility.”

Hansen explained that most of the pumps in the system will go in an underground vault just south of the roadway. But an above-ground building is proposed on the southern end of the parcel to house the control facility, a generator and the electrical room.

The plans showed that the building would be set far back on the parcel away from the road. This is to match the neighborhood which has primary residential structures at the front of adjoining lots and auxiliary outbuildings behind.
“We wanted to blend in and build further back, just like our neighbors are,” Hansen said.

The district was asking for two waivers. The first was to waive an intense landscaping requirement to buffer the project.
“We don’t think, given current drought conditions, that intense landscaping is the way to go,” Hansen said. “But we are planning on putting in seven trees and about 18 shrubs on the parcel in front of the building that will be set back off from the road.”

The other waiver being requested was to allow the building to be built 40 inches above the current grade in the area.
“This area floods when it rains,” Hansen said. “So everybody has set their homes up a couple of feet. That allows flood waters to just flow around the structure and continue to the south. We intend to do the same thing.”

In answers to questions from MVTAB members, Hansen said that all outdoor lighting at the site would be downward facing and on a dimmer switch. He also said that chip seal paving would be added to Lewis Ave. to extend past the last existing home on the street. Hansen added that Lewis Road would be open throughout the entire project.

Hansen said that the district would be accepting bids for the project in July. Construction is expected to begin in early 2023 with an 18-month construction timeline.

MVTAB member Brian Burris made a motion to approve the project. The motion was adopted with a unanimous vote.