Project

The Las Vegas Valley Water District is responsible for ensuring that municipal water supplies meet strict state and federal health standards. To accomplish this, the agency collects more than 33,000 water samples a year and analyzes them for more than 100 regulated and unregulated contaminants.

Water quality regulations are enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Safe Drinking Water. Chief among these mandates is what is termed “backflow protection,” a mechanism that prevents the reintroduction of water from private properties into the municipal water system. Compliance with this state requirement will require the installation of approximately 35,000 backflow prevention devices on meters throughout the Water District’s service area.

To accomplish this, the Water District has prioritized backflow installations based on their degree of risk to the system and has begun systematically retrofitting properties that require backflow protection. The backflow prevention program is expected to cost $100 million during the ten-year Capital Improvements Plan timeline.