Opinion ID: 2460291
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Clean Water Coalition

Text: The Clean Water Coalition was created pursuant to an interlocal cooperative agreement among four Nevada political subdivisions, all located in Clark County: the Clark County Water Reclamation District and the cities of Henderson, Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas. [1] In accordance with NRS 277.080-.180, the four members agreed to form the CWC based on their common environmental, economic and regulatory interest in the efficient and responsible collection, treatment, reuse and discharge of municipal [e]ffluent. [2] The agreement lists the CWC's conferred functions, the first of which is to implement the Systems Conveyance and Operations Program (SCOP), which involves planning, designing, financing, constructing, operating, and maintaining a regional system to convey effluent from existing and future wastewater treatment facilities to its ultimate outfall location in the Colorado River system. The interlocal agreement recognizes that the SCOP may include physical facilities such as pipelines and real and personal property, including leases of such property, permits, and licenses. Other CWC functions include managing effluent flowing through CWC facilities and contracting to sell or lease power produced from energy recovery facilities that might be constructed. The CWC's powers include, among others, preparing, reviewing, approving, and implementing regional water quality plans; adopting and amending operating and capital improvement plans and budgets; financing facilities that may be needed to carry out its conferred functions, including funding all aspects of the SCOP; assessing members for their agreed share of administration, operation, maintenance, and capital costs; and establishing and adjusting regional sewer connection and user fees to defray CWC costs. Each of the CWC's members collected sewer connection and usage fees from households and businesses, including The M Resort and other cross-appellants, in their respective localities, and then paid the CWC with the funds from the collected fees, in part to finance the building of the SCOP. The CWC had been collecting the fees since approximately November 2002, [3] but by October 2010, it stopped collecting. It is unclear whether the SCOP project has been put on hold indefinitely or terminated altogether. [4]