By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Can you imagine not being able to turn on the faucet and have clean water come out? What if there was no sanitary place for wastewater to go after it disappears down the household drains?
Next month, the residents of Virgin Valley will be asked to consider just such a dilemma, all while appreciating the water infrastructure available to them.
On Oct. 20, the Virgin Valley Water District (VVWD), in coordination with the City of Mesquite and the Virgin River Coalition will be participating in a national campaign called “Imagine A Day Without Water.”
The local observance will be part of a national education campaign that brings together diverse stakeholders to highlight how water is essential.
“The purpose of this is to bring awareness to how important water is,” said VVWD Conservation Specialist Natalie Anderson in a report before the VVWD board meeting on Tuesday evening, Sept. 6. “We hope to spread the word about the value of our most essential resource and why the infrastructure that provides water and wastewater service should not be taken for granted.”
The community will have a variety of activities and events during the week of Oct. 20, to “Imagine A Day Without Water,” Anderson explained.
In the City Council meeting that week, Mesquite Mayor Al Litman will be issuing a proclamation naming Oct. 20 as “Imagine A Day Without Water Day” in Mesquite.
Anderson said that she has been making presentations in local schools about the importance of local water resources and the infrastructure which delivers it. The school children have been encouraged to enter an art and an essay contest which will be taking place that week, she said.
“We will be asking some of our board members to help us with judging,” Anderson said. “And there will be prizes going to the winners.”
The district is working with the Mesquite Public Works Dept. staff to include the wastewater side of the resource and its infrastructure in the public education campaign, Anderson said.
The Virgin River Coalition will be holding a River Walk event that week as well. And the Coalition will be hosting a lecture series which will be offered on Wednesday evenings during the month of October; each at 6 pm at Mesquite City Hall.
VVWD board members expressed support for Anderson’s efforts in this event.
“I think that people in Jacksonville, Mississippi could probably imagine a day without water about now,” said VVWD Board member Rich Bowler referring to the major water supply crisis currently going on in the city which is playing out in the national news. “I think that everybody takes it for granted until it is not there anymore.”
Interestingly, in other agenda items at the meeting, the board approved three measures that would actually provide new and updated water infrastructure to the community.
In the first, the board authorized staff to prepurchase materials for a transmission line to connect the newly drilled VVWD Well 36 to an existing treatment facility at nearby Well 35, according to VVWD Engineer Steve Hall.
A long list of materials for the transmission line was being proposed for pre-purchase at an amount not to exceed $650,000.
“With supply chain delays going on right now, we are seeing that larger size ductile iron pipe and butterfly valves are about 4-5 months out for delivery,” Hall said. “If we can order these materials in advance, we can save potentially a couple months instead of waiting until we have a contractor and having them order the materials.”
Hall explained that the district had requested bids from three different suppliers. Mountainland Supply Company of St. George had responded with a bid on the materials in the amount of $634,558.53.
In a second related item, the board authorized staff to order a 1500 kVa transformer for the Well 36 Well House from the Overton Power District in the amount of $65,000.
Hall cited similar supply chain issues as the reason for getting the order in early.
Finally, the board authorized staff to contract with Layne Christensen to replace a pump and motor at the district’s Well 2.
Hall explained that the pump and motor at Well 2 had gone down in July. Layne Christensen had been called in to diagnose the problem a couple of weeks later. The results of the inspection showed that the well was still in good condition but that the pump assembly needed replacement in an amount of $66,040.
“This is in line with all of our other installs as of late,” Hall said.
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1 thought on “VVWD To Organize “Imagine A Day Without Water””
This is a political version of a false flag operation. The City Council and Water Board set up a strawman, imagining a city without water, then shoot it down with self-serving solutions that justify their growth at all costs strategies.
The facts are these, the city demands, and the water board delivers about 5,000 AFA more water from the closed, over appropriated basin (aquifer) than the Nevada Water Engineer established.
And the water board will give away $245,000 of ratepayer funds for a perennial yield groundwater study inconsistent with Federal and Nevada Water laws and water policies requiring an all-source analysis and Nevada Water Engineer approved water budget. Their action raises ratepayer costs while deliberately or unintentionally misleading the public concerning water availability and sustainability.
In the meantime, the Southern Nevada Water Authority gifted public funds payments of $59,339,238.74 to 37 Mesquite-Bunkerville families (surname) or corporation holders of 1927 publically owned but appropriated river water stock shares to send to Las Vegas for their domestic use.
The public should demand an all-source, Nevada Water Engineer-approved study by the U.S. Geological Survey, not a politically paid contractor, then talk about water shortages based on actual data, not political agendas.