Not just yet: When will new Circle K open?

A distance of 50 feet between fresh, potable well water and the septic tank system at Pahrump’s new Circle K convenience store is causing delays for the store’s opening at Homestead and Gamebird Road.

Bad water vs. good water

Though developers broke ground on Pahrump’s second Circle K in March 2022 with a ceremonial onsite groundbreaking event, the business has yet to open because of a possible exposure to pollution to the store’s drinkable water,according to Project Manager Randall Vincent, who says state inspectors discovered that the well and septic system were placed too close.

Not just yet

“The state water engineer declined to sign off on the project, and didn’t give us approval to open up the store,” Vincent told the Pahrump Valley Times this week. “The civil engineers designed the system to service residential codes and not commercial codes, so the septic system was 50 feet too close to the well. We’ve been back and forth on this.”

Commissioner speaks

Pahrump-based Strickland Construction installed the well system at the new Circle K.

Owner Nye County Commissioner Debra Strickland told the Pahrump Valley Times that crews installed the freshwater well system at the new Circle K before the septic tank system was installed there.

“Strickland Construction drilled the well a year and a half before they started construction and they had not given us drawings to where the septic tank was located,” Strickland said. “The engineer went out and said, ‘Put the well right there,’ so that’s what we did.”

Strickland said a final inspection of the site determined that neither system met the standards set forth by state officials.

“The Nevada Department of Environmental Protection was concerned about possible contamination,” according to the commissioner.

As far as when the business can finally begin operations, Strickland noted that the situation is still being worked out.

“There’s a lot of unknown factors to determine whether or not they have to abandon the existing well or still use it for the car wash as non-drinking water,” she said. “So now they’re sorting it all out and talking about drilling a different water well in a different location to get it far enough away from the septic. It’s a shame, it really is.”

Conclusion reached

Vincent, meanwhile, said it was eventually determined that the best thing to do in order to resolve the dilemma, would be to drill another well on the other end of the building.

“It’s actually called a relocated well,” he said. “The owners of the business are certainly upset about it, but they seem to be a lot calmer than I thought they would be because they had the same situation happen to another one of their projects in a different state, so they’re familiar with this kind of situation. To be clear, it’s not Strickland Construction’s fault.”

The big question

Additionally, Vincent said that it remains uncertain exactly when the store can open for business.

“It all depends on the state water engineer,” he said. “I’m guessing that it could be as soon as probably 30 days or maybe two or three months. The hope is 30 days.”

Once completed, the store will be the second Circle K operating in the Pahrump Valley, following construction of the first located at Blagg Road and Basin Avenue.

The Pahrump Valley Times has learned that a manager and 12 employees had already been hired and were training at that location to run the new location, which originally was scheduled to open by August 2022.

Aside from the car wash, the business will also provide six rapid-charge stations for electric vehicles along with a separate island of diesel fuel pumps for high-profile trucks.

Efforts to gain comments from the franchisees regarding the situation were unsuccessful.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes