Adding $39.5 million to Lake Mead project worries water authority board member

With the largest change order in agency history, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has bought itself some risk-free time to get its troubled third intake project back on track.

But one water authority board member worries that the massive construction job at Lake Mead could see its cost spiral out of control.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he cast the lone vote against the almost $40 million change order because of its "sheer magnitude" and his growing skepticism about the project's overall budget.

"I'm not comfortable moving forward blindly with no idea what the final cost will be," he said. "It's just an enormous risk to take when you're spending someone else's money and, ultimately, the ratepayers will pay the bill."

Sisolak's fellow board members voted Friday to add $39.5 million to the project's roughly $700 million budget.

The increase will help pay for changes in the project's design and for the damage and delay caused by several floods at the work site 600 feet underground.

In exchange for the money, the project's designer and general contractor, Vegas Tunnel Constructors, has agreed to accept all liability for any additional problems between now and when the next phase of the project begins in nine months or so.

That's when the contractor is expected to start drilling a 3-mile-long, 23-foot-diameter shaft beneath the bed of Lake Mead using a tunnel boring machine that stretches the length of two football fields and weighs more than three Boeing 747 jetliners.

Authority spokesman Scott Huntley said the change order guarantees that the agency will be liability free until the machine is "in, assembled, operational and when they push the button to actually begin boring."

What concerns Sisolak is that the authority just approved a change order approaching 10 percent of Vegas Tunnel Constructors' total contract, and only about one-third of the work has been completed.

The contractor has abandoned the flood-prone portion of the work site, and is now excavating a new underground assembly area and starter tunnel for the boring machine.

The project's overall completion date has slipped from early 2013 to sometime in 2014.

Sisolak said the third intake is starting to remind him of Boston's Big Dig, the expensive and trouble-plagued transportation project now synonymous with budget-busting mismanagement.

That network of tunnels, ramps and bridges took 16 years to complete and wound up costing more than $14.6 billion, up from an original estimate of $2.8 billion in 1985.

Roughly 90 percent of the Las Vegas Valley's drinking water is drawn from Lake Mead through two existing intake pipes. The so-called third straw will draw from deeper in the reservoir, allowing the flow to continue even if the lake level drops far enough to shut down one of the upper intakes.

Henderson City Councilman Steve Kirk was on the water authority board when the project was approved in 2005, and he voted in favor of the change order last week.

"I don't think we really have any choice," he said. "We have to do what's in the best interests of our constituents. We can't allow them to go without water. That just can't happen."

Huntley said this change order is the largest ever approved by the water authority in terms of "pure dollars," but not by percentage. During construction of the River Mountains Water Treatment Facility in 2000, authority officials decided to expand the design to allow for future expansion of the plant. That change order totaled $31.3 million, or 21 percent of the project's total cost of $146.6 million.

Kirk said he doesn't like the idea of massive cost overruns any more than Sisolak does, especially for a project that might not even be needed right away should the drought suddenly lift and Lake Mead recover.

But that's a gamble the board simply can't afford to take, and neither can the community, Kirk said.

"What's the price tag of running out of water? We can't just sit on our hands and hope the drought doesn't happen or it doesn't get worse," he said.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.

Trending topics:

• Lake Mead
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• Southern Nevada Water Authority
• Steve Sisolak
• Henry Brean
• Las Vegas

Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. TwoFour Mar. 17, 2011 | 8:15 a.m. Report Abuse

   @William924 – Hmm, lets see, shut off the water flow out of Hoover Dam…
   
   Well, first of all, we (NV) don’t own the water flowing out of the dam. We own a portion of the water IN Lake Mead and are drawing it out to supply Las Vegas. If our water is flowing out of the dam, we are screwed as we can’t get it back (no water intakes downstream of the dam that supply Las Vegas)!!! Secondly, if no water was flowing downstream, can you hear the environmentalists SCREAMING now? Animal \ plant life in the river would disappear. Third, the dam produces another commodity, electricity, which as weird as it seems, needs water flow to produce. While most of this energy flows towards SoCal, some it powers Las Vegas. No water flow = no power. Can you hear Los Angeles crying now?
   
   Very dumb idea, not to mention all the law suits!!

2. TwoFour Mar. 17, 2011 | 8:05 a.m. Report Abuse

   Jigs-n-fixtures – nice comment! I couldn’t agree with you more. The people doing these posts (trolls) need to get a clue and educate themselves before making dumb comments that make them look like the fools they are.

3. Jigs-n-fixtures Mar. 7, 2011 | 1:34 p.m. Report Abuse

   You folks need a few quick lessons in government operations.
   
   1.) The SNWA and LVVWD are not the same entity.
   
   2.) The rate of pay for all government organizations in the state are determined based on the result of compensation studies that include public and private sector employers. The rate of pay is normally slightly higher than the average, to allow the recruitment and retention of highly qualified employees.
   
   3.) The payment of prevailing rates to labor forces on public works projects is mandated by State statute. The local governments have no choice in that matter.
   
   4.) The State of Nevada, and thus the SNWA have limited rights to consume water from the Colorado River. And, they do not control the amount of water stored in any of the Colorado River Dams.
   
   5.) The SNWA, and the local distribution systems that buy water from it, deliver water at some of the lowest rates of any pump supplied systems in the nation.
   
   And, Joshua: The water at the fountains, etc., on the strip isn't from the water system. It is from wells that those resorts own, and they pay a recharge fee to the SNWA, for the amount they do use, to help the SNWA pay for the injection well system they maintain. Also as an alumnus of UNLV's Civil Engineering program, I resent your assertion that they don't have enough geotechnical classes. I was required to take three.
   
   And, From those three classes I know: In this region, once you get below the surface, anything can be found. This is one of the least predictable geologic areas in the world.

4. DE Mar. 3, 2011 | 9:50 a.m. Report Abuse

   Fireighters pay?????????
   Check the pay roster at the Southern Nevada Water Authority, By taking a pay cut they could probably pay for all the cost overruns themselves!!! Their pay rates are higher than the firefighters!

5. scott Mar. 3, 2011 | 8:59 a.m. Report Abuse

   Don't worry about anything Steve. Patty will just jack our rates up some more and every thing will be fine.

6. Thomas.Mikulski Mar. 3, 2011 | 7:33 a.m. Report Abuse

   THANK YOU Mr Sisolak for standing up for us taxpayers. You're right about the tunnel project. Remember the movie "Money Pit"? If you need back up information just check the beginning and final costs of other projects done by SNWA. That includes the Molasky Building at 15 and 95.
   
   Can you do us ratepayers a favor and find out why we are still paying for the "Clean Water Coalition"? Shows up on my bill. If the program is canceled why are we still being billed?

7. joshua.horn Mar. 3, 2011 | 6:52 a.m. Report Abuse

   Yeah, let's break those greedy unions! Even though they have no impact on the cost of this project. The blame falls in part on commissioners protecting the casino owners from paying more for their ridiculous fountains and waterfalls. The rest of the blame falls on the planners (likely UNLV graduates) selecting a virtual swamp for the project site. Double or even triple the water overuse rate and this pipeline wouldn't even be necessary. Since it is, however, quite cutting education funding at UNLV so engineering grads actually get a class or two on geological surveying.

8. Alfred E. Neuman Mar. 3, 2011 | 6:14 a.m. Report Abuse

   Rumor has it that Ben Dover will be forced to pay for the entire project, no matter what the final figure is.

9. pokieaz Mar. 2, 2011 | 10:39 p.m. Report Abuse

   Hey William924, I would really like to see where you got your facts concerning the other lakes. Lake Powell is currently at 54.42%. Thats not very "full". You can double check my FACTS here: http://waterdb.lakepowell.water-data.com/LP_WaterDB_printable.php. I was taught as a child it is better to have people think your a fool that to prove it....

10. dario.m Mar. 2, 2011 | 9:10 p.m. Report Abuse

    the Water Authority has been spending wildly for years.
    wasted money on fancy p.r. mailers and squandered funs
    on a sloppy job to tap water from northern counties. Please
    clean up the Water District.

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