Southern Nevada Water Authority

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) was formed in 1991 to manage Southern Nevada's water needs on a regional basis. The Authority comprises seven member agencies including the City of Henderson, City of Las Vegas, City of North Las Vegas, Big Bend Water District (Laughlin), Clark County Water Reclamation District and the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

SNWA provides wholesale water treatment and delivery for the greater Las Vegas Valley and is responsible for acquiring and managing long-term water resources for Southern Nevada.

From its inception, the SNWA has worked to acquire additional water resources, manage existing and future water resources, construct and operate regional water facilities and promote water conservation.

The SNWA is governed by a seven-member board of directors, which comprises one elected official from each governing board of the SNWA’s seven member agencies. While the Board of Directors sets policy direction for the SNWA, the Las Vegas Valley Water District is responsible for the day-to-day management of the organization through an agreement between the SNWA member agencies.

Member agencies

*Boulder City (Andrea Anderson)cite web |url=http://www.snwa.com/html/about_bod.html |title=Board of Directors |accessdate=2008-08-24 |work= |publisher=Southern Nevada Water Authority |date= ]
*Henderson (Steven Kirk)
*Las Vegas (Lois Tarkanian)
*North Las Vegas (Shari Buck)
*Big Bend Water District (Rory Reid)
*Clark County Water Reclamation District (Chris Giunchigliani)
*Las Vegas Valley Water District (Chip Maxfield )

Water supply and distribution

Southern Nevada gets nearly 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River. The other 10 percent of the water comes from groundwater that is pumped out through existing wells within Clark County. [cite web |url=http://www.snwa.com/html/wr_index.html |title=Water Resources |accessdate=2008-08-24 |work= |publisher= Southern Nevada Water Authority|date= ]

Treatment facilities

* River Mountains Water Treatment Facility
* Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment Facility

These facilities first treat the water with ozone to kill any potentially harmful microscopic organisms. As the water leaves the water treatment facilities, chlorine is added to protect it on the way to customers' taps. Since 2000, SNWA has also added fluoride to the municipal water supply. [cite web |url=http://www.snwa.com/html/wq_treatment.html |title=Water Treatment |accessdate=2008-09-03 |work= |publisher= Southern Nevada Water Authority|date= ]

Major distribution systems

* East Valley Lateral
*North Valley Lateral
*West Valley Lateral
*South Valley Lateral

Reservoirs

* Burkholder Reservoir (50 million gallons )
* Decatur Reservoir (20 million gallons)
* Grand Teton Reservoir (10 million gallons)
* Horizon Ridge Reservoir (20 million gallons)

Major pumping stations

* Decatur Pumping Station (81 million gallons per day capacity)
* Foothills Pumping Station (140 million gallons per day capacity
* Gowan Pumping Station (24 million gallons per day capacity)
* Lamb Pumping Station (111 million gallons per day capacity)
* River Mountains Pumping Station (315 million gallons per day capacity)
* Simmons Pumping Station (71 million gallons per day capacity)
* Sloan Pumping Station (111 million gallons per day capacity)

Commercial Campaign Awards

*"Mrs. Nuttington" - 2008 Silver Effie - Voted one of TBS's funniest commercials of 2006.

References

External links

* [http://www.snwa.com/ SNWA web site]
* [http://www.snwa.com/html/wq_facts_fluoride.html/ Fluoride]
* [http://www.nvgroundwaterproject.com/html/index.html Clark, Lincoln, and White Pine Counties Groundwater Development Project]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhpevdl2Sng Mrs. Nuttington on YouTube]