(By Thomas Daly & Cliff Low) – Our Washoe County Commissioners may be about to repeat the mistake of the Niagara Falls (NY) City School District which, in 1953, built a school and authorized the construction of 800 single family homes and over 100 apartment units on a hazardous waste site.
That site would become the infamous Love Canal, birthplace of the country’s Superfund program.
Hundreds of residents there would later die prematurely, with hundreds more suffering cancer, birth defects and miscarriages related to their unknowing exposure to deadly chemicals in the ground underneath their homes and school.
Washoe County has its own EPA designated Superfund site, the Carson River Mercury Superfund site, currently unfunded.
That site includes a large swath of land at the south end of Pleasant Valley, click here. Quoting from that report,
‘People are more likely to be exposed to contaminated soil in new residential developments or when a lot of soil is moved below the surface, such as when installing a pool or utility line. These areas have been undisturbed for long periods of time and need to be evaluated for metals in soil before the land can be put to use.’
On January 6, 2026, our Washoe County Planning Commissioners, individuals appointed by our elected Board of County Commissioners, denied World Properties, Inc’s application for a tentative map and Special Use permit to build 940 homes, the Sierra Reflections project, on this mercury contaminated site in Pleasant Valley.
The project proposed to excavate 3.6 million cubic yards of earth, likely exposing construction workers, as well as adjacent and downstream property owners, to mercury in the process.
Dozens of citizens, including current and retired expert engineers, scientists and former regulators, gave public comment in opposition to the project.
They cited the project’s hazardous waste exposure, traffic impact, lack of sewer capacity, water quality and supply, lot density and setbacks, excessive fill and grading, lack of public safety services, hillside development issues and impacts on endangered species and wildlife in this rural part of Washoe County.
A petition signed by 1,601 area residents opposing the project for many of the same reasons was filed with the Commission.
Planning Commissioners found numerous errors in the County Planning Division’s convoluted recommendation to ‘approve with conditions,’ a recommendation greatly favoring World Properties’ Sierra Reflections project.
However, Planning Commissioners could not make the ‘findings’ required by the county’s Development Code, some citing more than one deficient finding, including a threat to public health, lack of public safety resources and lack of suitability of the project to this largely rural site.
The denial of the application was by a unanimous vote of 6-0 (with one Commissioner absent), an almost unprecedented rejection of a planning staff recommendation.
On Tuesday, March 10th our County Commissioners will hear World Properties’ appeal to overturn the Planning Commission’s decision.
What could possibly go wrong should this project proceed?
Illness and premature death of Washoe County residents are likely.
Let’s hope our County Commissioners heed the advice of their citizen experts and confirm their Planning Commissioners reasoned and unanimous decision.
‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’
– George Santayana
Thomas Daly MSc. CSP (ret.) is a former Washoe County Planning Commissioner and a board-certified safety professional. Cliff Low is a Washoe County resident, President of the West Washoe Association and a member of the Washoe Valley Alliance. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
