A 160-acre site on 2250 E. Mesquite Ave. in Pahrump is the preferred location for a new federal detention center to house 1,000 to 1,500 inmates awaiting trial in federal court, according to the final environmental impact statement released Monday.

The EIS states 200 to 250 people would be employed permanently at the center.

The study estimates 40 to 50 employees would relocate to Pahrump to operate the proposed center; using census estimates of 2.61 people per household, that would be 104 to 130 new residents.

Two other sites were considered in the final EIS: a Parque Avenue site farther north in Pahrump and a site in Moapa Valley, northeast of Las Vegas in Clark County.

The 30-day public comment period on the final EIS begins Friday, after which the federal detention trustee will decide whether to proceed to build the center.

Corrections Corp. of America, the nation's largest provider of jail, detention and correction services, with approximately 72,500 beds in 65 facilities, would build and operate the facility.

Construction is expected to take 12 to 15 months. The detention center would have an annual operating budget of $25 million to $40 million, including an annual payroll of $17.5 million to $28 million. Another $7.5 million to $12 million would be spent annually on local goods and services, the EIS states.

The federal government would sign an initial five-year contract to house detainees at the facility, with three five-year renewal options, up to a maximum of 20 years.

The site is 8,000 feet east of Highway 160 and 1,000 feet east of the Pahrump landfill.

The EIS listed possible concerns with the nearby Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge six miles away from the proposed Clark County site. Four archaeological sites were also identified at the Moapa Valley site.

The Pahrump sites didn't have as high a population of minority or low-income populations, which would raise questions about environmental justice, the EIS states.

The Cocopah Indian Tribe based in Somerton, Ariz., asked to be included in the consultation process on the Moapa Valley site.

Ten acres of the Moapa Valley site are listed in a 100-year flood plain, which isn't a problem at the Pahrump site.

United Holdings Corp. of Las Vegas owns the East Mesquite Avenue site. The other Pahrump location, on Parque Avenue, would be on town property, which could have generated $100,000 in revenue, Economic Development Coordinator Al Balloqui said.

"I'm real excited. I wish it would've been the town site because it's more desolate. Sometimes second is better than none. I'm just so glad for the town," Balloqui said.

After two lightly-attended public workshops were held on the federal detention center last year, which drew almost no objections, Nye County Commission Chairwoman Joni Eastley said she was surprised nobody objected to the amount of water the facility would use -- from 150,000 to 225,000 gallons of per day.

Water and sewer lines would have to be extended by Utilities Inc. from Mesquite Avenue and Blagg Road. As an alternative, an on-site water supply and sewer treatment system could be built. Three-phase power would have to be extended to the site by Valley Electric Association.

The federal detention trustee is currently preparing a biological assessment of the desert tortoise for the Mesquite Avenue site.