Beneath the Las Vegas Valley sits a layer of shallow, salty groundwater that most people never think about — until it cracks a foundation or surfaces in ways that raise aesthetic concerns. Now, Clark County wants to know if that overlooked water could actually help solve one of the region's biggest long-term problems: not having enough of it.
The Clark County Water Reclamation District plans to host a pilot study examining whether that shallow groundwater can be treated and used to help shore up Southern Nevada's limited water supply, according to FOX5 Vegas. On Tuesday, the Clark County Commission signed off on using the district's largest treatment facility, the Flamingo Water Resource Center, as the site for the pilot program.
The project will be led by the Desert Research Institute and Ardurra Group, Inc., with the two organizations partnering with UNLV, UNR and New Mexico Tech on the effort, the station reports. District Chief Operating Officer Dan Fischer framed the potential upside in conditional terms, explaining the thinking behind testing the untapped resource.
Why Brackish Water Is Both a Nuisance and a Possibility
“If we can treat ‘brackish’ water or wastewater, treat it more effectively, we can possibly extend our water resources by using the shallow groundwater here in the Las Vegas Valley to augment our current water resource situation,” Fischer said, per the station's report. The brackish water in question can be found in shallow layers up to 30 feet below the surface, fed by rainfall or snowmelt.
That same water has a reputation for causing problems rather than solving them. Its high salt content makes it undrinkable as-is, and the same report notes that brackish groundwater can damage a home's foundation when it seeps up near the surface — a quality that has made it more of a hazard than a resource for valley residents up to now.
Funding and Open Questions Remain
The group behind the pilot is seeking a grant from the National Science Foundation, Fischer told the outlet, though whether that funding will come through has not been determined. The pilot will use reverse osmosis to test the water, and lab testing could be upgraded to 10,000 gallons a day.
Separately, a past academic study offers some technical context on just how complicated treating this kind of water can be. Research published by the ASCE Library examined using solar photovoltaic power to pump and desalinate brackish shallow groundwater from a selected well in the Las Vegas Valley, describing the local aquifer's total dissolved solids levels as ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 milligrams per liter.
The study’s findings illustrate why desalinating this kind of water is resource-intensive. The ASCE research found that concentrate management — essentially, disposing of the leftover salty brine after treatment — accounted for about 94% of a desalination system's overall energy consumption. Even so, the same study found a 5.5-megawatt solar array paired with 255 megawatt-hours of battery storage could be financially viable, projecting a positive net present value of $2.6 million and a reduction in carbon emissions of 4,700 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
A Long-Studied Layer of Groundwater
Water quality in these shallow layers has drawn scientific attention for decades. A 1987 U.S. Geological Survey report, an excerpt of which is referenced by the U.S. Geological Survey, described the poorest-quality groundwater in the valley's lowland areas as concentrated in the first few feet beneath the water table, with dissolved-solids concentrations ranging from 2,000 to more than 7,000 milligrams per liter.
For now, the Clark County pilot remains in its earliest stages, with the Flamingo Water Resource Center site approval marking the first concrete step. Whether the Desert Research Institute and Ardurra Group's work ultimately proves that this long-ignored groundwater can be turned into a usable resource — or whether it stays a costly curiosity beneath the valley floor — is a question the pilot has yet to answer.
