HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Sen. Harry Reid smiles at friends in Pahrump as he leaves the Bob Ruud Community Center after his Wednesday town meeting. Advertisement

Nevada's Democratic Sen. Harry Reid said he will talk to Michael Cherthoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to express his support for a federal detention facility in Southern Nevada.

Reid spoke to reporters after a speech at the Bob Ruud Community Center about alternative energy Wednesday.

Reid also alluded to discussions with elected officials in Nye County Wednesday morning during his speech before more than 250 people.

"I met with elected officials this morning, they're talking about building one (detention facility) here in Pahrump which would hold up to 1,500 prisoners and detainees. One of the problems with arresting the illegals is there's no place to put them. There's legislation I talked about, with the $3.5 billion, we would build enough (facilities) to have 30,000 beds for people to be put in," Reid said.

The senator, however, noted it's not possible to detain all 12 million illegal immigrants in the country.

On other local matters discussed with reporters, Reid said the issue of Nye County acquiring water rights on the Nevada Test Site came up with local officials.

Initial tests show some contamination in the groundwater at the test site, moving very, very slowly, Reid said.

The federal government is cleaning up all the nuclear sites in the country, but there's less urgency to clean up the Nevada Test Site because the water is underground and there isn't a river running next to the site, like at Savannah River, Ga. or Hanford, Wash.

"In the minds of most people, it's not as urgent. I talked to one of your county commissioners -- he said there's millions of acre feet of water up there. We're going to check that out," Reid said.

On another subject, Reid said the American Marshall-style Plan he advocated before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks would have focused more attention on doing something about the country's deteriorating infrastructure, like dams, highways, the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, roads and water systems.

"Two and a half days of Iraq's money, we could create 47,000 high-paying jobs," Reid said. "Here in Pahrump we need a sewer system, we need a water system -- that's the way it is all over America, and there's no money to do that. So that's what I believe we need to focus on, is doing something to build our infrastructure, and the highway trust fund does not do that."

Reid said he also thought the Wheeler Wash flood control program could possibly be funded from money out of the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act.