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Lassen supervisors conditionally back Sierra Pacific Industries’ Nevada export application pending county permits
Summary
After hearing from Sierra Pacific Industries and county staff, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors voted to recommend that Nevada applications 94406 and 94407 be approved only if the property owner first complies with Lassen County’s extraction and export permit requirements under Chapter 17.01.
The Lassen County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday considered a notice from the Nevada Division of Water Resources about Sierra Pacific Industries’ intent to export groundwater from parcels in Lassen County to a parcel in Nevada.
Planning staff asked the board to receive the February 17, 2026 letter and authorize the chair to respond to the Nevada State Engineer. Board members pressed staff and Sierra Pacific representatives for details about whether an application had already been filed (staff said no), historical permits from the 1970s the company cited, and the scale of the proposed export — 5,600 acre-feet per year.
Jeremy Higgins, manager for Sierra Pacific Industries, described the property as roughly 1,600 arable acres across California and Nevada and said existing on-site wells “currently produce over a thousand GPM,” arguing historical use and a mountain-block hydrogeology support pumping and a pump-and-monitor approach to show perennial yield. Higgins added SPI’s plan was to begin a temporary Nevada permit to collect data and work with the Nevada state engineer and local agencies.
Supervisors expressed concern that the 5,600 acre-feet figure is large relative to the acreage discussed and compared it to past local export projects of several hundred acre-feet. Board members and staff repeatedly recommended that SPI go through Lassen County’s export-permit process so county questions about volumes, wells, monitoring and local impacts would be addressed in writing and on the record.
The board initially voted to send a letter recommending denial until county permits were secured, then voted to reconsider. After further discussion the board approved amended wording instructing the chair to tell the Nevada State Engineer that applications 94406 and 94407 may be approved only if the property owner complies with all requirements of Chapter 17.01 (Extraction and Exportation) of the Lassen County Code. The motion passed with one recorded opposition.
Next steps: staff will finalize the county’s letter reflecting the conditional recommendation. The Nevada State Engineer retains authority to accept, modify or ignore any local recommendation as part of its permitting process.
