LAS VEGAS -- The Clean Water Coalition Continues to be the agency that will not die.
The CWC was supposed to be dissolved at their last meeting after it's main project, an $850 million waste water pipeline to Lake Mead was killed. But all members must agree to dissolve the agency and North Las Vegas representative Robert Eliason voted no at the last meeting, claiming his city was planning to use that pipeline to funnel water to Lake Mead from their new waste water treatment plant.
Now the plant must use a canal owned by Clark County, and the county refuses to let them use it. Eliason feels keeping the agency alive will help North Las Vegas in their battle to use the canal.
Eliason continued that filibuster, again voting against dissolving the coalition.
"At the end of June, all this is agency is going to have is a board, a lot of money and a lawyer," said CWC attorney Robert Marshall.
All the agency's possessions and supplies will be auctioned off Wednesday. They have already voted to terminate all employees on June 30. If the agency it is not dissolved by then, which seems unlikely, the CWC will have to file a budget for next year.
That issue became a key sticking point as Clark County Commissioners again delayed a vote related to that sewage treatment plant. North Las Vegas agreed to dissolve the CWC in exchange for a permit to discharge its treated water into the county's Sloan Channel.
The county insists the city needs its permission. The city claims the county long ago approved the channel's use.
Despite efforts by both sides to reach a compromise and some concessions from North Las Vegas, county commissioners again said no deal.
Among the items on the table are issues related to the water reclamation facility, like maintenance fees, several million in off-site improvements and an agreement by the city not to service the Nellis Air Force Base. North Las Vegas agreed to all of those terms.
The sticking points are the dissolution of the CWC, on-going issues involving commercial development along shared borders, and the construction of a pipeline to carry the effluent long-term. The city agreed to work in good faith toward all of those ends, but county leaders expressed their skepticism in no uncertain terms.
North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Anita Wood responded with frustration."I can't undo the wrongs of the past, but I can make a commitment on behalf of myself and the other members of the council to work with each and every one of you to move forward into a new era of cooperation and I am hoping that each of you will join me in that effort because we have been fighting long enough. The question now is can we stand together?" she said.
In response, the county delayed a vote on the use of the channel for another 30 days to give staff time to further negotiate. The city asked for permission to run limited tests through the channel, but that too was denied.
It's obvious there are years of bad blood between these two entities. But at some point, North Las Vegas will have to decide whether to continue talking or to move forward without the county's permission. Both sides think they have legally defensible positions.
Councilwoman Wood says she plans to meet with executive staff in the next few days to consider how to proceed.
