Sewer rates to go up July 1

It's best not to dwell on the idea too much, but about 90 percent of our drinking water comes from the same place our toilet water ends up.

Clark County Water Reclamation District officials hope customers will think about that when they start receiving higher bills later this year.

A portion of the 33 percent rate increase approved Tuesday will be used to improve treatment methods for the wastewater that is released into Las Vegas Wash and on to Lake Mead, where it mixes with the valley's drinking water supply.

The rates will begin to go up on July 1 and increase annually over the next five years. Most district customers will see their annual sewer bills rise about $12 each year through 2013.

The additional revenue will help pay for a $48.5 million pilot program for new filtration and disinfection methods that are expected to eliminate about 90 percent of the pharmaceuticals and other household chemicals discovered recently in Lake Mead in extremely small concentrations.

District General Manager Richard Mendes said the pilot program is expected to go on line by summer 2010 and will treat up to 30 million gallons of wastewater a day, roughly one-third of the district's output, using a combination of micro-filters and ozonation.

Depending on the results, the new treatment methods could be expanded for use on another 55 million gallons a day for about $64 million more.

The valley's wastewater already undergoes extensive treatment before it winds up in Lake Mead, and all of the water drawn from the reservoir is treated even more before it is delivered to local taps.

Mendes said the soon-to-be-piloted membrane ozonation process is merely one more measure of protecting water quality.

"This is pretty new technology," he said.

The district also plans to use money from the rate increase to recondition its more than 2,000 miles of sewer lines, "some of which has never been inspected or cleaned," Mendes said.

The County Commission signed off on the new rates following a public hearing Tuesday.

Before voting in favor of the rate increase, Commissioner Susan Brager called it a hard decision at a hard time when "resources from gas to bread to rice are going up."

But of the handful of comments made during the public hearing, none came from district customers upset by the prospect of higher bills.

Jane Feldman from the local chapter of the Sierra Club praised the district for raising rates to pay for preventative maintenance and new treatment technology.

What Feldman objects to is the district's move toward universal rates and connection charges for all the areas it serves. That change would dramatically reduce sewer hookup charges in Moapa Valley and open the door to "leapfrog sprawl development" in the rural community, she said.

Lance Rake from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada leveled a similar criticism.

"People who are developers are going to like this deal because ... they can build subdivisions well away from the urban core, but that's not good for our community," Rake said.

District officials have said the switch to universal rates and connection charges will help spread the cost of treatment upgrades throughout the system and avoid enormous rate increases in outlying communities where expensive upgrades are needed.

This is the reclamation district's first rate increase since 1995, though valley customers were slapped with a surcharge last year to help pay for new facilities that will bypass Las Vegas Wash and release highly treated wastewater at the bottom of Lake Mead.

Starting Jan. 1, the district also will begin to gradually increase the one-time charges paid by new customers who hook up to the sewer system.

The district serves more than 200,000 customers in unincorporated Clark County.

Even after the increase tops out in 2013, the district will still have some of the lowest rates in Southern Nevada and across the Southwest, Mendes said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.