Las Vegas Valley Artificial Recharge Program: 25 Years as a Water Resource Management Tool

Presented on Monday, March 16, 2015
James Prieur, M.S., P.G., Southern Nevada Water Authority, Las Vegas, NV

An artificial recharge program was initiated in 1989 as a water resource management tool to provide a reserve storage bank and stabilize Las Vegas principal aquifer groundwater levels. Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) work together to manage program permits, operations and monitoring. Nevada Division of Water Resources and Department of Environmental Protection provide regulatory oversight of the program. Since inception more than 365,000 acre-feet (af) of treated Colorado River Water has been recharged through 73 permitted dedicated recharge wells and dual use recharge/production wells during the off-peak season. In-lieu recharge credits are also provided for well production below annual groundwater rights. Currently, approximately 340,000 af of net recoverable AR storage is banked. An extensive monitoring network is used by SNWA to monitor hydrologic conditions in the valley. Historic hydrographs from various areas in the valley show the influence of the AR program over time, including recovery of static groundwater levels of more than 100 feet in the west central portion of the valley. Historic and current hydrologic conditions of the valley and AR program updates are presented.

MP3 Presentation Slides

James Prieur, M.S., P.G.
Southern Nevada Water Authority, Las Vegas, NV
James Prieur is Senior Hydrologist in the Southern Nevada Water Authority Water Resources Division. He has worked with SNWA since 2006. He has a Bachelor of Science specializing in Geology and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a Master of Science in Water Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a licensed Professional Geologist with over thirty years of experience performing hydrologic and environmental studies throughout the United States and internationally. Earlier in his career, he was Hydrogeologist with Halliburton NUS Corporation as USEPA contractor on the SUPERFUND program and later was Founder and Principal Hydrogeologist for Delta Environmental Consultants, Inc.
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