Southern Nevada Water Authority Board Members have approved a number of items to support a pumping station construction project at Lake Mead, including $9.75 million to buy and test three specially designed pumps from three different manufacturers.

When finished in about five years, the $650 million pumping station will work in conjunction with a new intake pipe, which is now nearing completion, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Though the authority is spending millions for the test pumps it will never use, General Manager John Entsminger said the investment should save the agency money in the long run and help ensure the reliability of what will become a critical piece of infrastructure for the community.

“It will take 34 pumps to make this station work. We want to give these pumps a very good test drive,” says Entsminger.

These pumps will do what no other pump has before, hence the nearly $10 million “test drive.” Marc Jensen, director of engineering for the authority, says each pump must move 30 million gallons of water per day and lift it as much as 500 feet vertically.

Three manufacturers have been selected to design and build prototypes for testing — one in Texas, one in Japan and one in Spain. The selected manufacturer will get a roughly $100 million order for all the pumps the station will need.

Jensen told the newspaper it will take about 15 months for the companies to engineer and manufacture their test pumps.

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal