• Unusual color or cloudiness
• Strong pungent or musty odor
• Floating debris
• Surface scum or foam
• Oil sheen
• Algae
• Dead vegetation or inhibited growth
• Dead animals
• Stains on channel bottom or sides
• Pipe corrosion

Prohibited Discharges:

• Industrial process water
• Commercial car wash wastewater
• Sanitary sewer flows
• Wash-down of loading areas
• Dumping of liquid waste
• Chlorinated pool water
• Water softener brine backwash

Permissible Discharges:

• Water utility line flushing
• Runoff from firefighting
• Landscape irrigation
• Groundwater recharge
• Discharges from potable water sources
• Dechlorinated pool water
• Street wash water from cleaning/maintenance (if no detergents or chemicals are used)
• Residential car washing

Health: Stormwater pollution can pose a serious health risk to people due to pesticides, bacteria, and chemicals that are washed from our city streets and into the stormwater.

Environment: Countless marine plants and animals living in the Las Vegas Wash or Lake Mead may become sick or die from contact with stormwater pollution.

Neighborhoods: Clogged catch basins significantly decrease the quality of life in many neighborhoods throughout the Las Vegas Valley. These "nests" of trash and debris can attract rats and cockroaches, create foul odors, and clog the storm drain system affecting neighborhood aesthetics and property values, and may cause local flooding.

Yes. The sanitary sewer and the storm sewer are two completely separate drainage systems.

The sewer system, or sanitary wastewater system, takes all household wastewater from toilets, showers and sinks, and routes it through your plumbing system into the one of four wastewater treatment facilities in the Las Vegas Valley. Once there, it receives three levels of filtration treatment before being discharged into the Las Vegas Wash and eventually Lake Mead.

The stormwater system, on the other hand, was intended to route rainwater quickly off the streets during a heavy storm, but unfortunately takes all urban runoff along with it. Chemicals, trash and debris from lawns, parking lots and streets, either intentionally or accidentally spilled, goes straight into the Las Vegas Wash.

Learn more about the differences between the storm sewer and the sanitary sewer.

No. During a storm event, water runoff is carried by the Las Vegas storm drain system directly into the Las Vegas Wash, which drains to Lake Mead. Contaminated stormwater receives no treatment because of the sheer volume of runoff from an area encompassing 1,600 square miles. The cost of treating Las Vegas Valley stormwater would be so high that it would exceed available resources.