Final Draft: Systems Conveyance and Operations Program Environmental Impact Statement

Clean Water Coalition

The Systems Conveyance and Operations Program (SCOP) Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyzes the potential impacts resulting from the construction and implementation of the SCOP. The City of Las Vegas, Clark County Water Reclamation District, and City of Henderson comprise the Clean Water Coalition (CWC), which proposes to implement the SCOP, which would be a system of increased treatment (as needed), and pipelines and tunnels that discharges highly treated effluent to an alternate location in Lake Mead. The SCOP would be designed to collect the treated effluent flows from the three treatment facilities, for conveyance to an area in the lower Colorado River system, while the majority of the flows bypass the lower Las Vegas Wash. This EIS analyzes the potential impacts of five alternatives including the No Action Alternative. Under the No Action Alternative the pipeline would not be constructed and highly treated effluent would continue to be discharged to the Las Vegas Wash at the existing discharge locations. Under the Boulder Islands North Alternative, a pipeline would be constructed that collects and transports highly treated effluent from the three treatment facilities to a receiving area in the vicinity of Boulder Islands. This alternative includes the generation of electricity at a hydroelectric generation facility on NPS land. Under the Boulder Islands South Alternative, a pipeline would be constructed that collects and transports highly treated effluent from the three treatment facilities to a receiving area in the vicinity of Boulder Islands, but there would be no power generation facility. Under the Las Vegas Bay Alternative, a pipeline would be constructed that collects and transports highly treated effluent from the three treatment facilities to a receiving area in the Las Vegas Bay. Under the Process Improvements Alternative, the treatment facilities would implement best available technologies to meet water quality standards, and the highly treated effluent would continue to be discharged to the Las Vegas Wash at the existing discharge locations.