Pahrump zombie lot report redacted
There has been a longstanding belief in Nye County that utilizing hauled-in water for domestic purposes on private property is not allowed but that is apparently not the case and as a result, the Nye County Water District Governing Board has officially redacted the Utility Challenged Lots Working Group’s “zombie lots” report.
Released just two months ago, the zombie lots report addressed the issue of Pahrump parcels that are unbuildable due to a lack of access to utility infrastructure and sizes too small to support a domestic well and septic system. There were three accepted sources of water identified in the report and four recommendations for possible actions moving forward but as water district general manager Dann Weeks explained, the entire document was based on the premise that water hauling for domestic use was not legal.
“We put in a lot of work from the public, from this board, from our alternate liaison… I personally put a lot of time in and I was really confident that it [the report] was ready to go,” Weeks said during the water board’s August 6 meeting. “Exactly four days after the zombie lot report was approved by this body, the Nevada Division of Water Resources pivoted 180 degrees and made an absolute position change on me.
“Division has decided that water haul is legal. Everything that I was told, from way back - 20 years I’ve been around water – was that water haul for residents was a nonpermissive use,” Weeks continued. “The report was based on that foundational belief.”
Weeks was not the only one shocked by this information, with water board member Michael Lach declaring, “We based it on something we were told not to be true later.”
“Very enlightening,” Nye County Commissioner Debra Strickland, who acts as commission liaison to the water board, added. “Since that’s not where even the county was, based on state regulations from a different state engineer. That’s where we’re at and where we’re sitting right now – we have a different state engineer who interprets this NRS [Nevada Revised Statute] differently than we have been told as a county and now, to this board.”
Newly selected water board chair Helene Williams suggested a letter be sent to the Nye County Commission explaining the situation and asserted that she felt the entire project had been sabotaged. She also noted she felt the work that had been done and the report itself were fabulous and she was disgusted that “the rug was pulled out from under it.”
“I couldn’t be more upset,” a clearly irritated Williams said. “I experienced, for 20 years, watching water haul. I watched people die because of infection – they didn’t transfer their water properly. One of those people was a brother-in-law and it’s a long, slow death. It’s a dirty process, water haul. There is no health department overseeing, it’s handled badly by every county that has it and I don’t think it’s in anybody’s best interest, at all.”
Lach made the motion to redact the zombie lots report, with a second from water board member Ernie Jackson. The motion passed with all in favor.
The water board then moved on to an item related to one of the recommendations contained in the zombie lot report, which Lach said he was still interested in pursuing. The item called for the designation of a board member to engage with Great Basin Water Company to explore opportunities for the water district to assist in the expansion of the utility’s water lines to serve zombie lots within its tariff area.
“The idea with this is, there are a number of streets in Pahrump – in the center of town, more so – where we have water [lines] coming down one side of the street and we have water coming down the other side of the street but there’s no connection between those two lines for, say, 20 lots,” Lach explained. “Not a super healthy way to run a utility, with dead-end lines like that… To try and connect those lines is the easiest way for us to move forward and try to make some of these utility-challenged lots, not challenged anymore.”
Water board member Michael Faught agreed that dead-end water lines are not the best in terms of water quality and said that helping to connect the lines to form a loop would be beneficial not just to the zombie lot properties but to overall water quality, too.
Lach was ultimately voted as the designee and going forward, there are many specifics to be hammered out, including exactly where a water line expansion would take place, how much funding could be put forward by the water district and how the district would recover its investment once the properties that have been connected are built on and much more. Lach will return to the board with a detailed report once those points have been discussed.
Strickland also noted during the meeting that she and Nye County Commissioner John Koenig had met with Congressman Steven Horsford during his recent visit to the valley and during a conversation with one of Horsford’s staffers, the concept of working with the Army Corps of Engineers to address the zombie lot problem had been broached.
“I said good luck, thank you and please,” Strickland said before suggesting the water board send a letter to Horsford supporting that idea.
Weeks replied that he would have such a letter placed on a future water board agenda for discussion.
For more details on the zombie lot situation and the now-redacted report, see previous coverage at pvtimes.com
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
