Nye County water board pushes data center moratorium

The Nye County Water District Governing Board unanimously approved an emergency order Tuesday requesting that the Nye County Commission place a moratorium on data centers in the Pahrump Valley. 

The emergency order is non-binding and includes draft language for an ordinance that would make data center projects a non-permissive use of water within the Pahrump Regional Planning District and Nevada Hydrographic Basin 162, a critically over-appropriated aquifer. 

Board members emphasized that they do not have the authority to approve or deny data centers, and that any recommendation they make will have to be approved by the Nye County Commission. 

“What the Board of County Commissioners does with their ordinances within the Pahrump basin is going to be up to them. It’s not going to be up to us as a water board, but we’re certainly going to give the recommendation,” said board member Micheal Lach.

The vote comes after the Reno City Council placed a temporary pause on new data center applications earlier this month. In Boulder City, a recent data center proposal was also shot down by the city’s planning commission after weeks of controversy.

Officials on the Nye water board said a moratorium would allow them to determine what strain the large-scale facilities might put on utilities and city resources.

Lach said there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to data center water usage, particularly the high water consumption of evaporative cooling. In Southern Nevada, evaporative cooling across 10 data centers consumed more than 352 million gallons of water last year, according to the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

“I think the question to this board is ‘how many acre feet as a board member would you be willing to give up of Pahrump’s water to a data center’,” said Lach.

“Data centers can work in certain parts of the country, I just don’t see why when you have our water problem, why Basin 162 would be a place to do it,” he continued.

Nye County has avoided the flood of data center proposals seen in northern Nevada, but recent proposals by data center developers have raised concerns among locals in the drought-prone county.

In January, the Nye County Commission approved a preliminary development plan proposed by TeslaSolar, LLC for an 800-acre solar facility on private land that would be used to power a data center. 

Valley Electric Association, which serves Pahrump, has also received several applications from data center developers, according to a presentation on large loads by the company last year. Regulated energy companies are legally obligated to provide power to any customer requesting service. 

The water board’s chairman, Ed Goedhart, said the decision to push for a moratorium came after dozens of phone calls from locals urging action on data centers.

The board said they must take existing water law into account when considering how to tackle data centers. Any changes to water law would require legislative action and the governor’s signature.

“Please understand that we’re doing everything that we can within the statutory framework to address this issue within our authority,” Goedhart said. 

Goedheart said he’s also interested in exploring the possibility of limiting or prohibiting the use of evaporative cooling for data centers in Nye County, a move that’s already been implemented in Clark County by the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Lawmakers in Nevada have also started to weigh statewide legislative action on data centers, following projections that Nevada will need 50% more energy than it projected needing just two years ago, and that energy demand could double by 2030.

Although Nevada’s data center market is still relatively small compared to larger markets like Northern Virginia, it is among the fastest growing in the United States, according to the Desert Research Institute.

Board member Helene Williams called on residents of Nye County to contact the Valley Electric Association and request a moratorium on data center contracts. 

“Get all your neighbors and friends, and go to the VEA, and create a meeting, and tell them to cease and desist. That’s really the only way we’re going to get this stopped,” Williams said.