NEVADA VIEWS: No more ghost towns in Nye County

There is a fundamental truth that everyone who lives in dry places must abide by: Our water is our future. In my position, I live and work in full recognition of the reality that all life and prosperity in these desert lands depends on how water, as our most precious resource, is managed and protected.

It is easy to fall prey to the notion that living things could not possibly thrive in a place such as Nye County given its location in one of the warmest and driest regions on the North American continent. But those who live here or spend time exploring this area know better.

Nye County is home to an incredible abundance of life in many forms. Communities in the county such as Tonopah, Beatty, Amargosa Valley, Crystal, Pahrump, Round Mountain, Manhattan, Belmont, Gabbs, Yumba, DuckWater, Current, Sunnyside and Railroad Valley are some of the most unique and storied communities in our state. Residents and tourists alike are attracted to these rural areas and to their surrounding lands because of the sense of true freedom, solitude and quietness they offer.

Nye County is also where the Amargosa River begins. Fed by groundwater that flows between several interconnected basins, the Amargosa provides a substantial portion of the county with an essential resource. In the middle of the Amargosa Desert is Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland oasis near the town of Amargosa Valley and Death Valley National Park. The refuge is known around Nevada and around the world due to the remarkably rare species of wildlife that live only within its borders.

The communities in this basin and Ash Meadows share in common one vitally important trait: They depend on water for their survival. That is why when I first came to learn of proposed mining activities near the wildlife refuge and the town of Amargosa Valley, I became deeply concerned. Though Nye County is strongly supportive of mining as the cornerstone of the state’s economy, I and many others feel that mining activities such as those that have been proposed near the wildlife refuge in search of lithium and other rare metals pose too great a risk to water and therefore to life in this area to be allowed.

Frankly, frustration has been building in our communities for more than a decade regarding the potential impacts of renewable energy development on life here in Nye County. Areas of the county, including the Amargosa Desert and Pahrump Valley, have had a bull’s-eye painted on them for industrial solar and other energy development projects.

We have already seen how just a handful of large-scale projects can change the quality of life in our communities as a result of the increased blowing dust and noise and the loss of unobstructed views that has come along with them.

But of gravest concern is what happens if projects are allowed to proceed that will consume or disrupt water that is relied upon by homes, businesses and special desert habitat areas such as those found within Ash Meadows. We in Nye County are eager to sit at the table with the federal managing agencies and our partners in the area to discuss sensible solutions and best practices for determining where these kinds of projects are appropriate, and where they are not. We believe our perspective as residents of this special landscape can be instrumental in guiding responsible land use and extraction. We feel we must do everything in our power to ensure that no new ghost towns are created in Nye County as a result of the decisions made too hastily and without sufficient consideration and discussion today.

That is why we are calling on our federal land managers and leaders in Congress to work together and with us as residents of the community to develop sensible solutions to our energy issues. This starts with not allowing projects with the clear potential to affect groundwater needed by the communities and by places such as Ash Meadows to move forward. Actions need to be considered and taken with the aim of ensuring that life in this basin continues to have the water it needs to thrive well beyond our lifetimes. We look to those charged with the duty of managing these lands to commit to that idea by saving our treasured landscapes such as Ash Meadows from the harms of exploratory mining on its bordering lands.

I call on our leaders not to let any more towns become ghost towns on their watch.

Bruce Jabbour, a Republican, represents District 1 on the Nye County Commission.