Nevada

Not just Nevada — lithium is draining water across the world, study reveals

Published

2 years ago

July 27, 2024

Not just Nevada — lithium is draining water across the world, study reveals

As Nevada gears up for the next few years of its lithium boom, a new study is calling attention to what’s most at stake — water.

Lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries, is considered a critical mineral for the transition away from fossil fuels to more green sources of energy. Only one lithium mine is fully operational in the country, in the Silver Peak mountain range of Nevada’s Esmeralda County.

But that could change fast, as dozens of lithium mines are proposed throughout the state and a few make their way through strict, decadelong federal permitting processes.

Published this month, the study’s authors put Nevada’s lithium conundrum into a broader, international context, offering a deeper look into water that’s been used up in other countries and what the U.S. could stand to lose.

Environmentalists, scientists and lawmakers have all asked the question for years: How can Nevada minimize harm to its most precious resource?

“Tremendous quantities of water — as I call it — are being pumped and dumped,” said Kate Berry, a University of Nevada, Reno geography professor who worked on the study. “Nevada is known by Nevadans as a mining state, but I’m not sure everybody knows what the implications are.”

Open-pit, brine evaporation or DLE?

There are three known ways to extract lithium from the ground: open-pit mining, lithium brine evaporation and direct lithium extraction, or DLE.

Open-pit mining, which involves drilling large holes and the production of waste, leads to the most environmental harm and conflicts that have led to the killings of activists around the world, the authors wrote.

Lithium brine evaporation is the method where salty liquid is pumped from the ground. There’s no clear scientific consensus about how this technique interacts with groundwater, but brine is not renewable and takes millions of years to form.

DLE takes away the need for evaporation ponds. It’s an umbrella term for a suite of approaches that’s only been used in Argentina so far and does still use freshwater, sometimes more than lithium brine evaporation.

While three of the authors interviewed don’t see any method emerge as the most sustainable in every context, Nevada lawmakers have floated DLE as a potential path forward to use the least amount of water. Holding the title of the driest state in the nation has prompted concern about intense groundwater depletion in some rural counties.

“What might be a sustainable use of water in one location would very much not be in another,” said UNR doctoral student and study co-author Noel Vineyard, adding that regions studied see impacts from numerous mines that extract different minerals. “Ignoring that is how we end up with over-appropriated groundwater basins in Nevada.”

One open-pit case study explored in the paper is Albemarle’s contentious Thacker Pass mine near the Nevada-Oregon border, highlighting its expected use of 1.6 billion gallons of groundwater ever year over the mine’s anticipated 41-year life.

Though it got a green light in the end and is being constructed, the mine became a tribal issue, proposed on the site of an 1865 massacre with many worried about groundwater contamination.

In the study, lithium production is shown as an issue of environmental justice, which focuses on how the environmental burden of mining is distributed unequally to underserved people.

David Kreamer, a UNLV hydrology professor who wasn’t involved in the study, said he sees lithium as a parallel to uranium mining, where extractive mining has clashed with cultural sites and environmental resources.

He agrees that lithium production is an emerging issue for so-called frontline and fenceline communities.

“The U.S. has a history of polluting the poor,” Kreamer said. “Environmental justice is a really important aspect of how we go forward as a nation.”

Contact Alan at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.

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Nevada

The Southern Nevada Ufology Group: Alien intrigue and fun

Published

4 hours ago

January 28, 2026

Press Room

The Southern Nevada Ufology Group: Alien intrigue and fun

Supposed sightings of alien aircraft and extraterrestrial life are synonymous with the state of Nevada. A new group in Southern Nevada hopes to offer a glimpse into the unsolved mysteries of the universe with its first event this weekend.

“I spend a lot of hours out there videotaping and to see that so many people want to come out and join me, it’s like a party,” said local ufologist Joseph De La Torre, better known as the Pahrump Alien Guy.

The Southern Nevada Ufology Group will host its first meeting on Saturday, Jan. 31, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. During the event, attendees will learn how to take photos of UFOs from the Pahrump Alien Guy himself. The meeting will take place at the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino in the building’s gravel lot near the bowling parking area. Attendees will park in the bowling parking lot.

“I ended up learning to look into the skies here over Pahrump and I read an article where it said that Pahrump is in the Area 51 excursion zone,” the Pahrump Alien Guy told the Pahrump Valley Times.

Participants are encouraged to arrive with a tripod for their phone in order to properly take photos. Food, beverages and camping chairs are also welcome, but the Southern Nevada Ufology Group asks guests to please clean up after themselves once the event is over. If you’re interested in joining Saturday’s meeting, you must RSVP by contacting southernnevadaufologygroup@gmail.com to confirm your attendance and to receive more information. Children are not allowed at the event.

“I think that it’s going to be very successful,” the Pahrump Alien Guy enthused.

The Pahrump Alien Guy hosted the inaugural Pahrump Alien Conference in October 2025, a gathering that saw a large turnout of locals, visitors from Las Vegas, and other tourists passing through Nye County.

“We didn’t think it was going to be that successful,” the Pahrump Alien Guy shared.

During that event, UFO photos from the Pahrump Alien Guy’s database were showcased, local vendors sold alien-themed goods and featured guests spoke about their work in ufology.

Two of the event’s featured speakers were Mike Bara, a New York Times best-selling author and frequent guest on the History Channel’s long-standing series “Ancient Aliens,” and Marysol Rezanov of the Nevada chapter of Citizens for Disclosure, a UFO information disclosure advocacy organization.

The Pahrump Alien Guy, his girlfriend Brid’Jette Whaley, Bara and Rezanov then founded the Southern Nevada Ufology Group. The group plans to host future meetings in other locations around Southern Nevada.

The Pahrump Alien Guy further explained that it was Bara and Rezanov’s idea to create a new skywatching group in Southern Nevada. Bara and Rezanov will be at Saturday’s meeting.

“We call it ‘Southern Nevada’ Ufology Group because it’s not just Pahrump,” the Pahrump Alien Guy said. “It’s all over southern Nevada.”

The Pahrump Alien Guy has a YouTube channel where he shows videos and photos he’s taken of UFOs. Watch the Pahrump Alien Guy’s videos on YouTube at youtube.com/@pahrumpalienguy.

Contact reporter Elijah Dulay at edulay@pvtimes.com

Southern Nevada Ufology Group’s first meeting

■ Saturday, Jan. 31, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

■ Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino located at 681 South Highway 160

■ Attendees will learn how to take photos of UFOs. Guests are are encouraged to bring a tripod for their phone.

■ To attend you must RSVP by contacting southernnevadaufologygroup@gmail.com

■ No children allowed

■ Park in the bowling parking lot, meeting will be held in neighboring gravel lot

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Nevada

Nevada’s population growth slowed last year, Census says

Published

16 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Nevada’s population growth slowed last year, Census says

Nevada’s population growth slowed dramatically last year, according to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

New figures from the government agency showed Nevada grew 0.9 percent, which put it in the top 10 states for percentage growth (9th) from July 2024 to July 2025. However, this is down from July 2023 to July 2024 when the state grew by 1.7 percent.

In July 2024, Nevada had 3,253,543 residents, and in July of last year it had 3,282,188. From July 2023 to July 2024, Nevada was the sixth fastest-growing state in the country, which meant it dropped three spots for the time period of July 2024 to July 2025.

Nevada expanded from 3,214,363 residents in July 2023 to 3,267,467 in July 2024, which turned out to be the fastest year-over-year growth rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, since before the pandemic in 2019. However, all of these growth rates are below the time frame of 2015 to 2018 when the state saw unprecedented population growth.

Overall, U.S. population growth slowed “significantly” from July 2024 to July of last year with an increase of only 1.8 million people, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This was the lowest population growth for the country since the early days of the pandemic when the population grew only 0.2 percent in 2021 year-over-year.

This population slowdown across the country follows a “sizeable” uptick in the growth rate in 2024 when the U.S. added 3.2 million people and grew 1 percent, the fastest annual population growth rate since all the way back in 2006.

“The slowdown in U.S. population growth is largely due to a historic decline in net international migration, which dropped from 2.7 million to 1.3 million in the period from July 2024 through June 2025,” said Christine Hartley, the assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the U.S. Census Bureau. “With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration is the main reason for the slower growth rate we see today.”

The population growth drop was felt across the country as all four census regions (West, Midwest, Northeast and the South) and every state except Montana and West Virginia saw growth slow or a decline in acceleration.

Five U.S. states experienced population decline from July 2024 to July 2025: California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia.

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.

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Nevada

Nevada City to weigh water/wastewater treatment fee hikes

Published

1 day ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Nevada City to weigh water/wastewater treatment fee hikes

Water and wastewater users in Nevada City could see fee hikes coming down the pipe as the City of Nevada City is currently going through steps needed to do so.

According to the city staff report, water users would see a 25% increase in costs each year for the next 5 years, while wastewater use would result in a 12% increase each year for the next five years.

For example, a water user currently paying $48 bi-monthly in fees, would be paying $198.41 bi-monthly by 2030.

A current wastewater user paying $159.31 bi-monthly, would be paying $250.67 bi-monthly by 2030.

“It is necessary to periodically review rates to ensure that the City can obtain sufficient funds to develop, construct, operate, maintain, and manage its water and wastewater system on a continuing basis, in full compliance with federal, state, and local requirements,” a staff report prepared by Interim City Manager Joan Phillipe said.

Council and staff will convene on the matter at their next regularly scheduled council meeting this Wednesday January 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Nevada City Hall, 317 Broad Street.

“It is recommended that City Council select a rate option for both water and wastewater and direct staff to initiate the Proposition 218 noticing process. This will involve public engagement and noticing to receive and consider feedback regarding the proposed rates and with public meetings and a hearing as mandated by Proposition 218 for formal adoption of rate adjustments,” the staff report said.

City to look at Enterprise Fleet services

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the city of Nevada City will consider approval of an agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management to the tune of up to $400,000 per year.

“To increase fleet efficiency, reliability, and reduce expensive repair and fuel costs, staff has researched leasing options that would be a benefit to the organization,” the city staff report reads. “The City of Nevada City currently purchases all fleet vehicles on a cash basis, meaning the entire cost of each vehicle is paid at the time of purchase. This can be heavily impactful to the city as a whole and difficult to adequately budget for. Utilizing Enterprise Fleet Management would yield moderate savings while simultaneously improving fleet viability, safety, and appearance.”

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