Pahrump residents push back on proposed hazardous medical waste facility

A proposed hazardous medical waste plant near Basin Avenue and Highway 160 has put the Pahrump DMV area, a nearby church and a ready-mix concrete supplier at the center of a widening land-use fight. Residents say they still need clearer answers about emissions, truck traffic, water use and public safety before a project of this kind is allowed to move forward in the heart of town.

The Pahrump Regional Planning Commission approved a conditional-use permit for the project on April 10, 2024, for 1850 E. Basin Avenue, a 4.71-acre heavy-industrial parcel identified in county records as Assessor’s Parcel No. 035-191-52. County documents name Ryan Oganesian of MediWaste Disposal LLC as the applicant and agent, and list Pinnacle Propane Express, LLC as the property owner.

The company’s plan relies on pyrolysis, a process it says would reduce medical waste into biochar and renewable fuel products. Permit materials also say the operation would receive medical-waste feedstock from California and other states, adding a regional waste-import dimension to a local siting decision. The proposal calls for material to arrive in secured 53-foot trailers.

County staff flagged more than the project’s promise of waste reduction. The report noted an onsite air-pollution control system, but also raised questions about equipment malfunction, fire or explosion risk, air-quality impacts and the handling of Dimethyl Ether, or DME. Staff warned that fumes can sink and migrate through sewer or storm-water systems, a detail that has sharpened resident concern in a town where many people live and work close to major commercial corridors.

By 2024, opposition was already building. John O’Brien said he was collecting signatures to push the matter back before county decision-makers, and residents said they were worried about air quality, water resources and odor. People objected not only to the industrial process itself, but to the idea of a hazardous waste operation near the center of Pahrump, next to everyday destinations and visible from Highway 160.

The fight picked up again in 2026 when the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection opened a 30-day public comment period from April 1 through May 1 on MediWaste’s permit request. The agency’s draft fact sheet places the site in central Pahrump, immediately west of a storage facility, near the Pahrump DMV and a church, and east of a ready-mix concrete supplier.

Nye County said it was sharing the state’s comment-period information, but was not conducting the review itself. The county was also under a moratorium on processing license applications for hazardous waste operations while officials drafted specific codes for those businesses, leaving residents to press for answers about a proposal that has already cleared one local hurdle but still faces a broader public test.