LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Clark County officials are releasing more information after over 800,000 gallons of wastewater spilled at the Whitney Lift Station and possibly entered the Duck Creek wash, which leads to Lake Mead, this weekend.
According to documents provided by the Clark County Water Reclamation District, officials received a call from Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday complaining of a back up in their facility "due to our lift station and sewer overflowing out of manhole."
The documents state as soon as officials received the call, lift station mechanics and truck operators were dispatched to "contain and make areas accessible to vacuum up overflow." Officials added most of the spill was contained in a big pond.
District officials said as of Tuesday night, the spill is estimated to be 863,625 gallons. Of that, officials said 281,500 gallons were recovered and 57,483 gallons are suspected to have entered the Duck Creek wash with the rest either recovered or seeped into the ground around the facility.
The district said they notified stakeholders downstream of the confluence of Duck Creek and the Las Vegas Wash, which leads out to Lake Mead, as well as other officials including the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and other local and federal agencies.
According to the notice sent to government entities, the cause of the spill was a "sewer overflowing out of manhole due to failure at lift station rock catcher and prohibiting flows to enter wet well in lift station."
On Tuesday night, Rep. Dina Titus released a statement saying she is "monitoring the situation and working closely with stakeholders on the ground. We must ensure that Southern Nevadans have access to water quality as well as quantity."
The Whitney Lift Station pumps an average of more than four million gallons per day with the capacity to handle 15 million gallons per day, according to the district.
