CITY OF LAS VEGAS ENVIRONMENTAL DIVISION BETS BIG ON THE FLEXIBLE WORKER CONCEPT

The City of Las Vegas' Vegas Valley Water Pollution Control Facility (WPCF) treats up to 68 MGD, with a capacity of 91 MGD. The facility includes Headworks, Grit Removal, Primary Treatment, and Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) on an average of 63 MGD; Disinfection, Sludge Thickening, Digesters, Centrifuge Solids Processing, and Energy Recovery. The Durango Hills Water Reclamation Facility (DHWRF) treats up to 10 MGD, and the Bonanza-Mojave WRF treats up to 1 MGD.Beyond the glitter and glamour of the tourist strip, Las Vegas is one of America's fastest-growing communities, putting enormous pressure on public service providers to keep up. Responding to the current population served, the rapid patterns of growth taking place, and the expansion of wastewater treatment facilities to serve the community, the City of Las Vegas recognized the need to develop more highly-skilled workers on staff in order to increase worker productivity. In response to this need, the City of Las Vegas created a flexible worker position called the Environmental Systems Technician (EST) with a skill set that combines the separate functions of Operations and Maintenance and provides a pool of employees trained and certified to perform a variety of tasks. The City's goal is to have these technicians accomplish 80 percent of the utility's O&M work. The EST is a multi-skilled worker authorized to perform certain operator and mechanical maintenance functions, in addition to having basic electrical, instrumentation, and control skills.