Lake Mead gets small boost from $100M upgrade to Henderson wastewater plant

Henderson has completed a $100 million upgrade to its water treatment plant, one of the facilities that allows Southern Nevada to cash in credits for water sent back to Lake Mead.

The city’s main Kurt R. Segler Water Reclamation Facility, named for the city’s first utility services director, can now process up to 44 million gallons of wastewater per day, up from 32 million gallons per day.

That’s a significant boost to the roughly 200 million gallons of water carried back into Lake Mead via the Las Vegas Wash, a 12-mile waterway connected to the valley’s wastewater treatment plants. Construction began in 2024 and the upgrades went online in April.

“Every drop that goes down a drain is treated and reused, supporting the community’s long-term water sustainability,” the city wrote in a press release.

Henderson’s City Sewer Enterprise Fund, a dedicated funding source for wastewater infrastructure and system improvements, covered the cost of the $100 million upgrade, a city spokesperson said.

Clark County’s robust water recycling program — which generates so-called return flow credits — is the reason Southern Nevada can continue to grow while having slashed its water use, despite its meager share of the Colorado River compared with six other states.

The city of Henderson operates a satellite wastewater treatment facility called the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility, located near Eastern Avenue and St. Rose Parkway. That plant has the capacity to treat up to 8 million gallons of wastewater each day.