Under a sagging line of pale Christmas lights on U.S. Highway 111, the Buckshot Deli & Diner keeps the coffee hot and the grill running seven days a week. It is the last restaurant standing in tiny Niland, and these days the most noticeable new faces at the counter are people in button-downs talking up Imperial County’s grand “Lithium Valley” future, not locals clocking in to new jobs.
Local coverage has turned the Buckshot into a shorthand for those stalled dreams. As Capital & Main has reported, owner Vicky Hernandez bought the place about a dozen years ago and now runs it with roughly five employees. County supervisors and geothermal workers swing through after touring project sites, but the town around them is still nursing disaster scars: fires, a burned-out post office and flood damage that helped shutter much of the main drag.
County plan promises jobs and a big buildout
On paper, Imperial County’s Lithium Valley Specific Plan is massive. The proposal would open about 51,000 acres along the Salton Sea to geothermal power, lithium extraction and related industries. County draft documents for the Lithium Valley effort project up to 40,000 jobs tied to the buildout, including roughly 10,000 temporary construction positions, according to county materials.
Tax law aims to keep revenue local
State lawmakers tried to lock in local benefits in 2022. California’s lithium extraction excise tax sends 80% of the revenue to the county where the lithium is produced and requires that at least 30% of the county’s share go to communities most directly affected by extraction. That breakdown is spelled out in the Lithium Extraction Excise Tax Law in the California Revenue and Taxation Code.
Industry still working on financing and permits
On the ground, however, the lithium rush is still more promise than paycheck. Capital & Main reports that some developers in the Salton Sea area have yet to secure full project financing, and none of the companies working locally has begun sustained commercial lithium extraction. Technical hurdles, permitting and water-supply questions, along with legal challenges, continue to keep big money on a cautious leash.
Locals want concrete investment, not promises
For Hernandez and her regulars, tax formulas and job projections take a back seat to basics like fixing what is broken, keeping utilities reliable and landing real local jobs. As Times of San Diego notes, Hernandez at one point put the Buckshot up for sale, a move that highlights the financial squeeze on small business owners in a place where the unemployment rate sat at 16.5% in April 2026. That kind of jobless number helps explain why talk of future lithium work still gets a hearing from residents who are looking for paychecks now, not in some distant boom time.
Legal challenges and the public review process
The rollout has already triggered courtroom battles and long public reviews. Community groups including Comité Cívico del Valle and Earthworks have challenged project approvals under CEQA, and courts have been asked to sort out those claims, according to reporting by inewsource. At the same time, Imperial County has pressed ahead on its own rules: on May 12, 2026, the Board of Supervisors adopted a Lithium Valley Construction Workforce Ordinance intended to prioritize local hiring and apprenticeship pathways as projects move forward.
For now, the Buckshot doubles as an unofficial barometer for Lithium Valley’s progress. The suits and supervisors may order the carne asada, but residents say the real measure will be whether county planning, the new tax structure and the ongoing legal fights actually produce sidewalks, a reopened post office and steady paychecks, instead of just another round of speeches. How Imperial County navigates its permitting process and the court challenges around it will help determine whether Niland’s lone diner ever sees more than a trickle of the prosperity it has been promised.
