Members of the Nevada Contractors Insurance Safety Committee got a look at one of the busiest industrial projects in the valley when they toured the Clark County Sanitation District’s Central Filters construction site in February.

From The Construction Zone: March 2001

Members of the Nevada Contractors Insurance Safety Committee got a look at one of the busiest industrial projects in the valley when they toured the Clark County Sanitation District’s Central Filters construction site in February.

Sletten Construction is general contractor on the massive, bustling job on the 18-acre site. More than 30 subs are at various stages of constructing pipelines, filter towers and excavations that will bring the county’s capacity for waste water treatment from the current 120 million gallons a day to 260 million gallons.

Steve Peters, Sletten’s superintendent on the job, led the safety committee members around the site. Accompanied by Sletten’s safety director, Tom Morano, the Nevada Contractors Insurance committee members were talked through the process going on round them. When it comes to this job, Sletten is on very familiar ground.

"We started phase two in 1992," Peters said. He pointed at a fully operational plant adjacent to the current job. "We finished that in ‘95, then came back out here in ‘99 to complete the next phase." Peters said the job will peak out at around 150 employees at full throttle.

Simply put, the filtration plant’s job begins whenever a toilet flushes. Waste water that reaches the plant is subjected to a series of filtration processes that leaves it just a few steps away from tap water.

Dwight Dielmann, Clark County Sanitation District operations manager, said that the county no longer uses chlorine in waste water reclamation. He said the reclaimed water is targeted for use by industry and other applications such as watering golf courses. The county now uses ultraviolet light to treat the waste water, a process proven more effective, and one that will increase capacity once construction of the new phase is complete.

The committee paused at one of the excavations. Steve Peters had told them that the site was located on the Las Vegas Wash, and that the shallow ground water made construction of a water treatment plant ironically hindered by floods. To control the water, Sletten had to install 75 wells pumping 24 hours a day just to keep the area free from flooding. What they saw was the battle in progress, as an excavation made the previous day had filled up, and now had some two feet of standing water in the way of work.

The pumps were already on, the workers busily getting rid of the water so forms could be laid and more of the expected 22,000 cubic yards of concrete poured and another pipeline set in place.

A busy, muddy construction site on the fringes of the Las Vegas Valley will help keep Las Vegas successfully growing, thanks to the smooth, quiet, and competent performances of the professionals involved.