Letter to the Editor from Pamela Gurr of Yerington

Yerington NV – September 25, 2026

Letter to Editor

From Pamela Gurr of Yerington, Nevada:

National view, last few days: Erin Brockovich is mapping the same sequence in state after state — rural land rezoned, studies thin or late, public last. Sunday night CBS 60 Minutes showed it in Texas: a pitch with few specifics, a long tax break, a room that said no, a vote that said yes.

Here is ours.

Monarch Data Center — Copia Power, with Swedish firm EQT agreeing to buy Copia. About 1,000 MW in Mason Valley on land that was agricultural / rural-residential. Master plan changed. Tentative PUD (Planned Unit Development) approved. Land control was an option, not a deed, when hearings moved. The sale is still not closed. It waits on PUC (Public Utilities Commission) approval. The state’s new tax-break order only covers companies that ask Carson City for an abatement.

They do not own it yet. The county already rezoned it. The people who filled the room did not approve.  Hundreds showed up. The vote was 3–1 with a recusal. 60 Minutes used the same frame in Red Oak: the room said no, the board said yes. 

We are asking for protections before the deed and before the dirt: water source and monitoring, power that does not land on other customers, noise, and a community agreement you can enforce in this county. Final PUD and permits are the next local gates. That is where the conditions belong — now, not after earth moves on the solar, the gas, the storage, or the parcels.

Our zoning, our land, and our process deserve better: the same measure of care we are being asked to give up.

Before the deed. Before the dirt.

Monarch / Copia Power (EQT to acquire Copia). Tentative PUD is approved. They do not own the land yet. The sale waits on PUC approval. County data-center ordinance rules do not apply to Monarch. The room, the lobby and record online attendance did not approve.

Protections only count if they are on the Final PUD and on the permits.

1.  Call it industrial-scale infrastructure.

2.  Studies in the packet before Final PUD and before any permit: water in acre-feet and source, MW by phase, traffic, noise, emergency power.

3.  Title. No sale treated as done until PUC status is public. No grading on an option.

4.  Water as a recorded condition. Walker Basin is over-allocated. Monitoring wells before earth moves.

5.  Power stays on the applicant. No shift onto other customers in a grid emergency.

6.  CBA (Community Benefits Agreement) on the land: local monitor, penalty, clawback.

7.  No grading, no wells, no building permit until 1–6 are in the recorded handbook.

8.  Publish first.  Final PUD handbook, sale/PUC status, studies, and draft permit conditions posted in the packet and on the county site before the hearing and before any permit is issued — enough days to read them. No late slides, no “it’s in the file if you drive to the counter.” If the public cannot see it, it does not count as reviewed.

CBS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/exploring-data-center-pushback-60-minutes/

Transcript: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/data-centers-60-minutes-transcript/

Erin Brockovich FaceBook. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid033eBpo2DhaSFhhHuxZPuVg3uz8CvVbJqZ6z8mdWp7qwg6GmAv6w3oeaHZEHa75irml&id=