Bullfrog County,
Nevada
Bullfrog County was a
short-lived county created by the Nevada Legislature in 1987 in
an attempt to garner more state revenue from the potential
creation of the Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste repository. It was
re-absorbed into Nye
County in 1989. Bullfrog
County consisted of a 144 square mile (373 km²) area around
Yucca Mountain, completely enclosed by southern Nye County.
Its county seat was the state capital, Carson City (although
that city was not contained within its boundaries), and it
had a population of 0.
The county's establishment was a
response to plans by the United States federal government to
give money to Nye County in exchange for building the very
unpopular Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository there. This
money would apparently have gone straight to the county
government, bypassing the state government. Therefore, the
Nevada Legislature declared the unpopulated area around the
proposed nuclear waste site to be a new county, Bullfrog
County. Because this new county had no population, any federal
payments for placing the nuclear waste site there would go
directly to the state treasury.
The establishment of the county
was challenged by the government of Nye County, and the Nevada
district court found it to be in violation of the state
constitution because of its zero population size. In
compliance, the state legislature abolished Bullfrog County in
1989, and the territory was absorbed back into Nye
County.
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