Palm Springs, Nevada Style? Coyote Springs Nevada Implements Sustainable Wastewater Treatment and Reuse to Reduce Costs and Accelerate the Schedule

The Coyote Springs community is being developed on the largest private landholding in Southern Nevada in a valley of the Mojave Desert about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas. This 42,800 acre parcel is being transformed into a new city that could ultimately include up to 159,000 homes and 16 golf courses. Construction is currently underway on the first 6,881 acres of the 13,100 acres within Clark County.The water resources available in the Coyote Springs Valley are limited, and the demands for these resources are not confined to the Coyote Springs development. Limited water resources led to the incorporation of several sustainable and low-impact concepts into the design of this development; maintaining open space – especially natural open space; sharing water resources with the environment; optimizing available water resources with stormwater wetlands and 100% treated wastewater reuse; and providing decentralized water and wastewater infrastructure.Implementation of sustainable concepts shortened the schedule for developing the Coyote Springs community. A major conservation land set-aside and the allocation of some water rights for endangered species protection resulted in Federal approval of the project. Reusing 100% of the wastewater on site greatly simplified the State approval process as a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit was not required. Finally, a decentralized and phased approach to providing stormwater and wastewater infrastructure using the design-build delivery method greatly compressed the schedule – smaller, distributed facilities that match the pace of development can be designed and constructed more quickly than large facilities built for the ultimate capacity of the development.Implementation of sustainable concepts produced cost savings as well. Stormwater wetlands were less expensive than a conventional stormwater system. Reusing 100% of the wastewater on site was less expensive than acquiring new water rights for an equivalent volume of water. And decentralized water and wastewater infrastructure, constructed to match the pace of development, was much less expensive than providing facilities sized for the ultimate capacity of the development.