Letters to the Editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

A political boundary does not divide our aquifer too

Pahrump residents are rightly concerned about the proposed 900-acre Manse Technology Campus and its potential demand on our limited groundwater supply.

The developer states that the completed campus would use less than 300 acre-feet of water annually through a closed-loop cooling system. That is nearly 98 million gallons every year. Although the developer describes this as only 1.5% of the Pahrump Basin’s perennial yield, it would consume almost 6% of the basin’s presently calculated unused margin.

An equally important concern is what happens if Nye County rejects the project and it is moved across the line into Clark County.

Pahrump Valley Basin 162 extends into both Nye and Clark counties. A political boundary drawn on a map does not divide the aquifer beneath it. If the data center relocates to the Clark County portion of the same basin, its groundwater pumping would still affect the basin shared by Pahrump residents.

The result could be especially unfavorable to Nye County. Clark County might receive the project’s taxes and economic benefits, while Pahrump residents continue bearing some of the risk to their wells and long-term water security.

The official perennial yield of Basin 162 is approximately 20,000 acre-feet annually. Reported 2023 pumping was approximately 14,861 acre-feet. Adding 300 acre-feet would bring annual use to roughly 15,161 acre-feet, or nearly 76% of the basin’s estimated sustainable yield. During higher-use years, the percentage could exceed 84%.

Before either county approves this project, the Nevada State Engineer should require an independent basin-wide study. It should disclose existing pumping in both counties, the location and depth of the proposed wells, expected drawdown near residential wells, construction water, cooling losses and the cumulative effect of future expansion.

Any approval should include a binding water-use ceiling, public metering, independent audits, penalties for exceeding the limit and permanent retirement of more existing water consumption than the project introduces.

Existing water rights are not the same as newly created water. Moving the project across a county line would not move it away from our aquifer.

Water recognizes watersheds and basins — not political boundaries.

Harold Rubin-Smith

Resident loves Pahrump - except for the bad roads

My letter is in response to Mr. Andy Weiss, “Resident considers relocating because of no growth plan”.

I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Weiss. I don’t plan on relocating because we love where we live in Mountain Falls. We moved to Pahrump five years ago and Mr. Weiss is correct that nothing gets done in this town unless it is a new fast-food restaurant or gas station. I have read that the new park at Gamebird and Highway 160 has been in the works for 25 years?

My biggest problems are how bad the roads are in this town. For the five years that we have lived here, there has been a pot hole on Loop Road between Postal Drive and E. Charleston Park Avenue. No telling how long it has been there before that. Many roads in this town are in bad need of repair.

I have yet to see our road department doing anything in our town. How faded do the center lines dividing a road have to get before they get restriped? How faded does the word “stop” have to get before it gets painted?

Why can’t we get a new market on the southwest side of town near Manse and Homestead or any other area near Mountain Falls? Homes are being built everywhere in this area.

The only person that is doing his job is our sheriff, Joe McGill. I think a big investigation needs to be done, not only in Pahrump, but Nye County to see where the money is going or not going. Now they want to build a data center on 900 acres in Pahrump. Before building anything else on Highway 160 Pahrump should try and get the state to widen the highway between the Clark County line and Homestead Road.

Dwayne Jones