U.S. Reps. Porter and Berkley (third and fifth from left) join state, local and other federal representatives in cutting the ribbon that marks completion of the Corps' Tropicana-Flamingo segment of the Clark County Flood Control Project. The project will minimize the potential for flood damage in nearby Las Vegas.

A blistering July sun shone down, creating a hot, dry desert morning, a distant Las Vegas shimmering on the horizon to the east. One by one, cars drove up a dusty maintenance road toward a white tent perched atop an embankment. Leaving the air-conditioned comfort of their automobiles, men and women moved to the tent that provided some relief from the elements.

They were there to mark the completion of a major phase of a project designed for something atypical: to protect people and property from flood waters that were nowhere in sight, and had not been for several years.

Inside the tent, posters displayed photos of people waiting for helicopters to airlift them to safety while floodwaters raged past their vehicles roof-deep in water. U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley said the posters reminded her of the days when Las Vegas streets went from “bone dry to flooding in an instant.” The flooding she referred to resulted not only in millions of dollars in property damage, but in 31 deaths since 1960 that were directly related to flooding. As recently as 1999, water cascaded through the city, pushing vehicles out of casino garages and floating them down The Strip, prompting a visitor from France to remark that from his casino hotel window, “… it looked like a beautiful woman who had been crying, and all the makeup was running down her face.”

Col. Alex Dornstauder and Brian Moore (center) discuss the Tropicana-Flamingo project with U.S. Rep. Jon Porter. Porter previously served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is responsible for the nation's Water Resources bills.

It was then that the Corps began its 20-year partnership with Clark County, planning a project to help protect a Clark County population that adds 6,000 new residents each month to its current 1.9 million citizens. The Tropicana-Flamingo portion includes three debris basins, five detention basins, nearly 28 miles of primary flood damage reduction channels and environmental mitigation providing 100-year level of flood damage reduction to the alluvial fan area and to portions of the existing developed urban community.

“Tropicana-Flamingo is a system all its own,” said Ken Morris, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles. “It will accept the flows from the primary channels, collect and detain them, and then release them at non-damaging rates of flow from the Tropicana detention basin.” Three debris basins will trap large bedloads of sediment and debris and prevent erosion damage to the project. The Tropicana-Flamingo segment will divert rainfall from the nearly-7,000 feet tall Spring Mountains to the west that U.S. Rep. Jon Porter described as “literally walls of water flowing from these mountains down into the valley, into Las Vegas.”

It may be a popular misconception that generally dry deserts are immune to flooding. A window seat on a commercial airliner will convince one otherwise. Steep mountain slopes and a lack of vegetation increase both the amount of water and its intensity of flow. According to the Clark County Regional Flood Control District, 61 percent of disasters that have occurred over the past five years included flooding.

The R-4 Debris Basin lies to the west of downtown Las Vegas. The 391 acre-feet capacity structure will collect debris washed down from the nearby Spring Mountains. Channels will then route the water around and through residences and businesses southwest of the rapidly-expanding Las Vegas area.

Fraser called Tropicana-Flamingo “a great project for our community.” He said the federal dollars directed to southern Nevada enable it to make better use of their local dollars.
Berkeley congratulated the several stakeholders on the success of the long-term effort.
“We’ve done well together,” she said. “Without the project, when I first moved here, there was indiscriminate flooding. This is no ‘Bridge to Nowhere.’”
 
Morris agreed, calling Tropicana-Flamingo “a very viable and needed project for flood control in this area.”

“Getting this project into the ground helps protect lives and property,” Fraser said. “This has been a great partnership among the Corps, Clark County and the Flood Control District.”

Delivering a Corps central theme, Los Angeles District Commander Col. Alex Dornstauder told those in attendance, “We, as the Corps of Engineers, are nothing if not in your service.”

Dornstauder succinctly explained why it is necessary to redirect the water around Las Vegas. “All you have to do is look at the Grand Canyon to see the power of water,” he said. The dedication ceremony was Dornstauder’s final visit to the project before reporting to a new assignment at Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. There he can report first-hand the completion to the man who was the Los Angeles District Commander when the project started, Chief of Engineers, Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp.