NAC704.5673. Water supply and wastewater treatment plan: Options for meeting demand for water and wastewater treatment.

     1. The water supply and wastewater treatment plan of a utility must:

     (a) Identify and analyze the utility’s options for meeting the demand for water and wastewater treatment established in the forecasts prepared by the utility pursuant to NAC 704.5667; and

     (b) Describe, for each option, the utility’s facilities and any new facilities that may be required. The description must set forth the actual or proposed capacity of each facility and the actual or proposed resources available for each year of the water supply and wastewater treatment plan.

     2. The options must include, without limitation:

     (a) The construction of new facilities;

     (b) Improvements to existing facilities, including, without limitation, the retrofitting of the facilities with more efficient systems or the conversion of the facilities for use with other water sources or forms of wastewater treatment;

     (c) The purchase of water rights;

     (d) Improvements in the efficiency of the utility’s operations, including, without limitation, improvements that are attributable to the proposed implementation of new digital and computer information system technologies; and

     (e) Transactions with other utilities that furnish water or provide services for the disposal of sewage and with other water suppliers for:

          (1) The pooling of water supplies;

          (2) The purchase of water supplies; or

          (3) The exchange of water supplies.

     3. The analysis must consider for each option measures to reduce the risk of interruption in the water supply, including, without limitation:

     (a) Increasing flexibility in the utility’s sources of water supply;

     (b) Increasing diversity in the utility’s sources of water supply;

     (c) Reducing the utility’s commitments for supplying water;

     (d) Selecting projects relating to water supply that can be completed within 3 years immediately following the year in which the resource plan is submitted to the Commission;

     (e) Reducing the utility’s costs of supplying water; and

     (f) Increasing the reliability of the water supply.

     4. A utility may not include an option in its water supply and wastewater treatment plan unless the option, if selected by the utility and approved by the Commission, will:

     (a) Provide for a reliable water supply;

     (b) Be within applicable regulatory and financial constraints; and

     (c) Comply with all applicable federal, state or local laws and regulations for the protection of the environment.

     (Added to NAC by Pub. Utilities Comm’n by R043-08, eff. 9-18-2008)