Searchlight Water System - Source Water Assessment

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was amended in 1996 to require states to develop and implement source water assessment programs for existing and potential threats to the quality of public drinking water, and to include a summary of that assessment in the water system’s annual consumer confidence report. Specifically, states are required to delineate the sources of public drinking water, identify potential contamination sources within the delineated area, assess the water system’s susceptibility to contamination and inform the public of the results. These results are summarized below:

The Searchlight Water System service area is supplied by two wells in Piute Valley. The wells in Searchlight are recharged by precipitation and snowmelt runoff from the Lucy Gray Range, the Castle Mountains and the McCullough Mountains, as well as from groundwater flows from the adjacent upgradient valley.

The wells supplying water to the Searchlight service area were assessed for potential vulnerability to volatile organic (VOC), synthetic organic (SOC), inorganic (IOC), radiological and microbiological contaminants. One well is considered to be highly vulnerable to contamination from nearby above-ground storage tanks. The wells are also considered to be moderately to highly vulnerable to VOC and SOC contamination based upon previous detections of di(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate, toluene, p-dichlorobenzene and xylenes; however, concentrations of these contaminants were well within federal health-based standards. VOCs are typically associated with gasoline stations and dry cleaners; SOCs are generally associated with herbicides and insecticides.

Water from the Searchlight Water System meets or surpasses all state and federal drinking-water standards.

For additional information, please contact the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection at (775) 687-9520.