Presentation outlines Garnet Valley (Apex) wastewater master plan: ~40 miles of pipeline, SNWA funding for main infrastructure

Ernie Buo, senior civil engineer in the City of North Las Vegas public works department, presented the wastewater master study for the Garnet Valley hydrographic basin that will serve the Apex/CapEx industrial area in northern North Las Vegas.

“The mission of the Garnet Valley wastewater system is for it to maximize the water resources by developing the necessary infrastructure to capture all those wastewater that will be generated from the Garnet Valley Hydrographic Basin and for it to be conveyed and to be treated and hopefully to be returned to Lake Mead,” Buo said.

Buo told the board Apex comprises about 19,000 acres, of which roughly 8,100 acres are considered developable now; he said about 10,000 acres exceed a 15% slope and are not currently developable. The proposed wastewater conveyance will use three lift stations in series (Northern Flats, Black Mountain and Industrial Rail) and five collection basins. Buo described proposed gravity sewers and force mains of varying diameters and said the project includes approximately 250,316 lineal feet of sewer pipeline—“about almost 40 miles of wastewater pipelines.” He said the project will connect via the city’s northeast interceptor and convey to the CNLD (Berry Lane) water-reclamation facility for treatment and reuse.

Buo provided the study’s flow estimates and economic projections. He said the total average daily flow anticipated at full buildout is about 14,734,881 gallons per day and the peak flow about 23,580,000 gallons per day; Buo said SNWA has guaranteed about 24 million gallons per day of water capture. He said the development is projected to attract diverse industrial uses and estimated roughly 73 jobs and approximately $7,000,000,000 in investment over the next two decades.

On funding, Buo and the utilities director said SNWA is funding the major water and wastewater mains and the city will ask developers to fund individual connection lines tying into those mains. Buo noted some parcels are on Bureau of Land Management property and that BLM permitting and other regulatory hurdles could lengthen the schedule. He said existing developers in the southern part of the study area already connect to the Las Vegas sewer and that the full project will require significant collaborative investment; Buo said SNWA alone has invested close to $900 million for water and sewer infrastructure in the area.

Board members asked operational questions: staff confirmed the three lift stations are in series, that developers fund the tie-ins, and that variable-frequency drives are in place on pumps. Buo and other staff offered to return with additional detail on water-infrastructure design if the board requested it. The presentation was for discussion only and did not require board action.