Nye County Water District takes first steps for future exploratory drilling project.

According to the Nevada State Engineer’s Office, the perennial yield of Basin No. 162 is 20,000 acre-feet of water but this number hinges on a key factor - capturing the approximately 8,000 acre-feet of outflow leaving the basin each year.

Now, the Nye County Water District is working toward an exploratory drilling project to determine if water from the basin’s southern outflow can be captured and put to use in serving the town of Pahrump, which relies entirely on Basin No. 162 for its water.

In order to move the project forward, a feasibility study and engineering contract for phase one of the Water Infrastructure and Pipeline Project went before the water board at its Tuesday, Oct. 13 meeting. Nye County Water District General Manager Dann Weeks provided some background on the project, explaining that the previous perennial yield of Basin No. 162 - or the amount of annual recharge from the basin’s sole source of water, the snowpack on the Spring Mountains – was 12,000 acre-feet. However, sometime around 2014, the town started pumping more than the yield, putting local water resources in a precarious position and leaving officials casting around for a solution.

“This body, the Nevada Division of Water Resources and the county commission staff, at that time, derived a plan by which we would go to the south, develop a wellfield and a pipeline and bring in that water that is currently flowing out into California – it flows out of our basin and ultimately evaporates in Tecopa,” Weeks detailed. “And they [state engineer] moved the perennial yield from 12,000 to 20,000. But we didn’t go do the project, we didn’t go drill the wellfield and we didn’t put in the pipeline.

“The yield at 20,000 supposes that we’ve already completed that importation project, which we have not done,” Weeks reiterated. “So, what I am doing is, seeking federal funds to go do this project so that you all [Pahrump public] don’t have to pay for it. If we are successful and we complete that project, then everything is fine. If we don’t complete that project, we have a problem. It is nuclear-bomb important that we go and confirm that: A, we can go get that water; B, that we should get that water; and C, what it will cost.”

In order for the water district to seek federal funding through the Army Corps of Engineers to support the exploratory drilling project and ultimately, the wellfield and pipeline, the district must first have a shovel-ready proposal, which was the purpose of the feasibility study contract the board was considering. UES Professional Solutions 30, LLC, formerly known as Shaw Engineering, was selected for the contract, which came to $44,825 and includes review of potential test well locations, assistance with preparing a Notice of Intent to the Bureau of Land Management and assistance with project descriptions and scoping to secure Army Corps of Engineers grant funding.

Although the contract was not included in the water district’s fiscal year 2026-2027 budget as approved, at the recommendation of auditor Dan McArthur, the district allotted $100,000 more for professional services than was needed, leaving plenty of funds available to cover the cost.

Water board member Ernie Jackson made the motion to approve the contract, with a second from member Ed Goedhart. That motion passed with all in favor.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com