On the shores of a shrinking Lake Mead in southeastern Nevada, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is four years into a $650-million low-level pumping station that’s been blasted and excavated and fitted with specially designed pumps to serve a thirsty Las Vegas.

The pumping station—called L3PS by the Southern Nevada Water Authority—is the final piece to a $1.3-billion plan developed more than a decade ago in response to declining lake levels. From 2008 to 2015, a joint venture of S.A. Healy Co. and Italy’s Impregilo S.p.A completed a third intake for Lake Mead that is able to draw water at 860 ft, the lowest possible level.