A dispute over water could jeopardize ongoing construction of what will eventually be the world’s largest lithium mine.

Lithium Americas Corporation filed an emergency motion Monday seeking clarification about whether it needs to stop pumping water to its Thacker Pass lithium mining project in Northern Nevada.

Local rancher Edward Bartell has sued over the project, claiming the company’s water pumping will harm his cattle operation. Nevada’s state engineer had previously found that the company could move forward with its plans to pump water, but a judge partially reversed that finding. Then, last week, the state engineer issued a cease and desist letter to the Canada-based mining company.

In lieu of a legal clarification of the previous decision, Lithium Americas is asking for a limited stay — or temporary suspension — that would allow it to proceed with construction.

“The ruling never mentions … that pumping needs to be halted,” said Tim Crowley, vice president of government and external affairs at Lithium Americas. “We don’t think the judge intended that result.”

Thacker Pass is the largest known lithium resource and reserve in the world. The company needs about 200 acre-feet of water per year during construction, which will continue through 2027. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover roughly a football field with water 1 foot deep or to supply roughly two urban households with indoor and outdoor water needs for a year. 

Once in production, the company will require about 2,600 acre-feet of water per year. 

If the emergency motion is denied, the company said in its filing that it will be “irreparably harmed,” as will the people who are, and plan to be, employed by the company. during construction, the company expects to employ close to 2,000 people. 

“We need water to move forward with construction,” Crowley said, noting that construction has been at “full bore” on the $3 billion project since receiving its final investment decision in April, with plans to “go vertical with steel” as soon as August. Construction costs total more than $1 million per day. 

The company is asking for the court to issue its decision by July 7, as that’s when the state engineer expects compliance with the cease and desist letter. The company is also working on ways to secure water temporarily, Crowley said, although he declined to provide details.

“We are confident we are not going to have to stop construction,” he said.

Bartell, the rancher who filed the suit that led to the order for the company to stop pumping, told The Nevada Independent in a brief call that “obviously we’re going to challenge [the company’s emergency motion].” 

Timeline

Thacker Pass is in a mountainous area northwest of Winnemucca; extraction companies have eyed Thacker Pass since the 1970s, when lithium was found at the site. In 2007, the company that is now Lithium Americas renewed exploration at the site, and in 2020, the company submitted its environmental impact statement to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  

That same year, Lithium Americas filed an application seeking to move permitted water rights it had previously obtained in the Quinn River Valley closer to the mine site, which sits to the west of the valley.

Bartell protested, claiming the change application would conflict with his existing water rights.

The BLM approved permits for Thacker Pass in 2021 during the final days of President Donald Trump’s first administration, allowing the mining project to move forward, and ultimately, the state engineer granted Lithium America’s request to relocate its water rights, as long as it kept them within the Quinn River Valley.

Lithium Americas adapted to that limitation by constructing an 8-mile-long pipeline to move the water uphill from the valley to the mine site.

In March 2023, Bartell filed a petition for judicial review; the matter didn’t receive an oral hearing until February of this year.

On April 10, the Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada issued an order reversing the state engineer’s decision on two of the five water rights claims brought forth in the matter, returning them to application status. In the ruling, the court pointed out that the state engineer’s determination that the company’s effects to Bartell's water rights and cattle operation “is not rooted in scientific fact” because it had “assumed” — rather than scientifically determining — there was enough water in two of the five contested claims.

On April 28, the state engineer issued a letter to Lithium Americas alerting the company that permits for two wells had been returned to application status following the ruling. The state engineer asked the company for additional information that would help “develop a more thorough understanding of the water sources” related to the claims, including data such as flow measurements or pumping test data.

On June 4, staff from the Nevada Division of Water Resources (DWR) found during an investigation of Lithium America’s property that the company was still pumping water.

On June 17, DWR received a letter from Bartell containing photographs showing the company continued to pump water following the June 4 investigation. Meter readings on file with the division confirm that water was pumped from the well since the April ruling.

On June 20, DWR issued a letter to the company stating that “the State Engineer hereby directs LNC to immediately CEASE AND DESIST any further pumping from the Quinn #1 well. The State Engineer likewise hereby notifies LNC that it is prohibited from pumping water from any other well that is proposed as a point of diversion under the above-mentioned applications, including but not limited to the Quinn #2 well.” 

Crowley confirmed to The Nevada Independent that the company continues to pump water from the wells while it comes up with an alternative.

“Our interpretation of the cease and desist order is we have 14 days to comply, and no one from the state has suggested that we’re wrong,” Crowley said.

Ongoing legal challenges 

The cease and desist order is the latest in a line of legal challenges that has plagued the lithium project.

In 2021, a slew of environmental groups filed a joint lawsuit alleging the BLM violated various federal acts by approving the mine’s environmental impact statement and another suit filed by the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and other Indigenous people alleged the BLM violated the National Historic Preservation Act.

Bartell also sued, alleging the BLM violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider the mine’s effects on Lahontan cutthroat trout and other various environmental concerns. 

The suit stood in apparent opposition to a suit he’d filed just two years earlier — not related to the mine — against a project aimed at preserving the trout. In that suit, he objected to the agency’s 2017 decision to allow the Nevada Department of Wildlife to apply rotenone, a type of fish poison, to eradicate non-native brook trout in a portion of Falls Canyon Creek in an effort to restore threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout. 

The three suits were dismissed. In 2023, the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and two other tribes filed a new suit alleging the BLM didn’t consult with them before the project and withheld historical information. That suit also was dismissed. 

Editor's note: This story was updated at 5:45 p.m. June 30 to correct the number of people employed during construction of the mine.