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Board hears BLM approval of Rough Hat Clark solar; staff and commissioners flag Basin 162 water concerns
Summary
Nye County staff summarized BLM’s approval of the Rough Hat Clark utility-scale solar project and provided an estimate of construction water use; board members urged the District to consider solar projects in the Basin 162 Groundwater Management Plan.
The board discussed a Bureau of Land Management decision to approve the Rough Hat Clark utility-scale solar project and the potential groundwater impacts to Basin 162.
Nye County Natural Resources staffer Megan Labadie (spelled L A B A D I E in the record) told the board the project’s anticipated construction-period water use is about 800 acre-feet per year and that construction would last an estimated 12 to 18 months. Labadie said that equates to roughly 9,600 acre-feet over 12 months or 14,400 acre-feet over 18 months if construction used that annualized rate over the full period. Labadie provided the figure during a question from a board member about expected water use.
Board members said they want the District’s Basin 162 Groundwater Management Plan to explicitly account for proposed utility-scale solar projects because continuous operational water demands could reduce water available for development and for resident users. One member noted that solar projects’ continuous water use would subtract from potential development allocations in Pahrump and urged that the groundwater plan estimate both construction-period and continuous operational water demand.
Members discussed whether the county’s Groundwater Management Plan update—then under Division of Water Resources review—should include solar projects and options to estimate water impacts. Staff said the Basin 162 plan is near completion and would come before the board for comment once the Division returns answers to outstanding questions.
A board member also raised the question of whether solar developers could be required to provide retail power locally (a model used in other projects). Another member said the Yellow Pine system (an existing local project) provides modest retail power to the local utility and suggested state legislation under consideration could require local retailing from some solar projects.
No action was taken; the item was presented for information and to brief the board on the BLM decision and local planning implications.
