Who Treats the Water We Use?

Every day more than 170 million gallons of used water and sewage from thousands of local homes, schools, churches and businesses make their way to one of three water treatment facilities in the Las Vegas valley. The Clark County Water Reclamation District’s staff of highly skilled technicians is dedicated to treating, disinfecting and reclaiming the 96 million gallons of wastewater received daily at our facility, and safely returning it to the environment. 

Why Do We Sometimes Smell Odors Near a Wastewater Treatment Facility?

Odors are a by-product of the service we provide to our customers. Handling and treating those odors are an integral part of the process performed by the Clean Water Team at our facilities.

Our primary goal regarding odors is to make sure they are not detectable beyond the borders of our facilities. Weather conditions like heat and wind can affect our ability to meet this goal. While the best technologies are in place to limit odors, occasionally odors may be detected during routine maintenance or construction activities.

What Causes Odors?

The odors detected in wastewater collection and treatment systems are an indication that nature is working to decompose organic matter and reduce or remove pollutants from the wastewater. Hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans are two common causes of odors as they are detectable by the human nose at extremely low concentrations. Our odor remediation processes are designed to reduce these odors in the pipelines and at the treatment facility to an absolute minimum.

Do Odors Have an Effect On Human Health?

The Clark County Health Department monitors the treatment process, including detectable odors. Any odors detected are non-toxic, and human health is not impacted.

What Is Being Done To Remove Odors?

As more and more neighbors move right next door to our wastewater treatment facility, we are working diligently to add new technologies to enhance odor scrubbing and removal programs and devices.  At least 10% of the money used to build or expand our facilities is dedicated to odor control.

Over $ 25 million has been spent in recent years to:

• Speed up the treatment process
• Install enclosed pipelines
• Improve handling of surge pond sediment
• Cover our pumps, clarifiers and other process equipment
• Provide and maintain soilbed filters
• Provide additional odor scrubbers

We also have installed additional sewer lines and built a new lift station near Sam Boyd Stadium. This eliminates the need for lift stations at Barry Acres and by the Whitney Elementary School and further reduces the potential for odors near those neighbors.

Working Hard To Be Good Neighbors

The good news? Our modern state-of-the-art water reclamation facility utilizes the latest in technology and equipment to perform our important service to the community. We will continue to talk to our neighbors through questionnaires, surveys, open houses and more.   Capital improvement projects currently underway will further reduce the presence of odors. We are working hard to be good neighbors, and with the involvement of the community, we are making tremendous progress.