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North Las Vegas wastewater operations review: current capacity, odor risks and a plan for Garnet Valley service
Summary
City operations supervisor Bryce Burrell briefed the board on the Water Reclamation Facility’s collection system, membrane capacity and a 2.2-million-gallon equalization basin; he outlined a phased expansion to accommodate projected growth and a planned repair to seepage in an effluent channel.
Bryce Burrell, operations supervisor at the City of North Las Vegas Water Reclamation Facility, gave the board an operational update on Oct. 28 that described the system’s current capacities, recent upgrades and near-term challenges.
Burrell said the city’s collection system currently serves about 274,000 people with roughly 1,200 miles of sewer pipe. The membrane bioreactor (MBR) facility came online in 2011 with a permitted influent flow of 25 million gallons per day; membrane upgrades and replacements have raised the plant’s flux capacity to about 35 million gallons per day. Burrell said "35 MGD is basically our limit" with the current biological treatment footprint and that further expansion will require biological capacity upgrades and permit changes.
To address diurnal peak flows, the facility added a 2.2 million-gallon flow equalization basin divided into three basins to smooth evening peaks and morning lows; Burrell said the basins are covered for security and to manage hydrogen sulfide risks. He described an operational balancing issue in the equalization basin where dissolved oxygen drops and hydrogen sulfide can form; staff are adjusting aeration and process chemistry to avoid upsets.
Burrell described a phased plan for serving Garnet Valley that will include three lift stations to convey flows back to the valley for treatment and to secure return-flow credits; those lift stations are anticipated to be completed in 2028. He also summarized completion of a membrane expansion project and noted an ongoing remedy to address seepage in a reinforced concrete box (RCB) effluent outfall: crews inserted a fiber-reinforced pipe in above-ground sections and plan a cure-in-place liner for the buried sections at headwalls to eliminate seepage.
Why it matters: The presentation outlined how the city plans to maintain redundancy and treatment performance while accommodating long-term growth projections that could raise peak design flows toward the 77 MGD range by mid-century if high-growth scenarios materialize.
Board members asked whether basins are covered and how the facility will phase capacity increases; Burrell confirmed basins are covered and described a phased build‑out tied to headworks and bioreactor upgrades. No formal action was taken on the update.
