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~ COVER STORY W ATE R SUPPIJY suspected the lake intake but never pinpointed the path ofthe fecal-borne protozoa nor found any deficiencies in SNWA's pre- existing lakeside treatment plant. "Presently, there are no known adverse impacts to the drinking water supply that is tak- en from Saddle Island," emphasizes Kim Zikmund, an agency project manager. Just 400 ft from the pre-existing 600-mgd intake, SNWA built a second 600-mgd intake that Mulroy dedi- cated to public acclaim in January. "NO-SERVE" From the intake's concept to completion took just seven years, and 10 years from Mulroy's 1990 decision to stall new construction around Las Vegas. Shortly after she received a 1989 promotion to become general manager ofthe Las Vegas Valley Water District-the first woman to head a major municipal water agency in the West-Mulroy stopped issuing "will-serve letters," commiunents of water needed by developers seeking building permits. Expecting to run shon of water by 2005, she continued the no-serve moratorium for one year while consultants evaluated local water needs and supply. In 1991, Mulroy corralled seven feuding water and wastewater agencies to pool water rights and create the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which the Las Vegas Valley Water District began running in 1993. "We went from a blank sheet of paper in 1993 to $1.3 billion finished or under construction in 1998," says second-in-com- mand David A. Donnelly, the water dis- triet's and SNWA's deputy general man- ager, citing a figure that includes soft costs. With $860 million in construction work awarded since 1995, the authority figures on letting a total of $1.4 billion worth by 2017. For now, its current bid plans extend only through 2004 for an estimated $221 million worth. For all the largess so far, open-shop contractors remain riled by Mulroy's approval of a union-preferential project labor agreement in 1996, after a ] 995 labor strike at a reservoir excavation. The Associated Builders and Contrac- tors sued SNWA, then lost last year in Nevada Supreme Court (ENR 6/21/99 p. 10). Though forced to use union crews, open-shop bidders obtained 38% of the dollar volume of all the construc- tion contracts to date, say SNWA officials. m ~ z g ~ ~ . u . w " U ~~ ~< ~.. OlONATEO-WATER BOX Water will travel through 600-ft-long conduit from hot tap and ozone contactors to aeration basin at lakeside Smith plant. m o 5 < 64 ENR/ APRIL 24, 2000 HOT TAP In-service "hot" pipe gets cut and tapped. SNWA's largest contract-the largest public-works contract ever in Nevada-was awarded in 1998 to Lake Mead Constructors, a joint venture of two regional subsidiaries of Omaha~based Peter Kiemt Sons' Inc. Including the record-size $147-million con. tract to build the River Mountains plant and its $31- million change order, Kiewit holds nine contracts totalling $427 million. So far, change orders add up to just 6% of the sys- tem-wide construction volume of $860 million, according to SNWA. And thanks to savings from unex. pectedly low bids and negotiations of design fees and change orders, SNWA expects to spend $134.5 million less than the $2.2 billion once anticipated, says Jesse L. Yoder, deputy project director for Parsons Infra- structure & Technology Group Inc., program and construction manager. "The client did everything right, in my estimation, on a large program like this," he says. Parsons' fees now amount to $75 million of ,'W'r" $119 million expected. ~~il OVERBUILT? While critics continue to question the project's scope and expense, SN\r\TA claims that local water demand will exceed capacity by no more than I] 4 mgd by 2002, and then catch up by 2023. "I don't think we've overbuilt our system," says Marcus R. Jensen, SNWA engineering director. With completion of the initial 150-mgd capaci- ty at the River Mountains plant in 2002, the sys- tem's treatment capacity will total 750 mgd. With seasonal variations in use, 750 mgd equates to 526,000 acre.ft annually-more than Nevada's riv- er allocation of 500,000 acre-ft induding return- flow credits, Jensen concedes. At first, he expects to make up the difference with groundwater. As demand warrants, SNWA plans to install another ]50 mgd of capacity in building shells now under construction with the $31-million change order. And to use the extra capacity, Jensen expects SNWA to obtain a federal entitlement to the cur-