Why Doesn't Nevada Have Agricultural Inspection Stations?

A lot of LVA News items talk about the backups after long weekends on the I-15 where the freeway narrows down for the agricultural inspection station a little southwest of Primm. Why doesn't that happen in the opposite direction before the holidays? In other words, why doesn't Nevada return the favor with its own inspection station?

In a phrase, follow the money.

California's agricultural economy is ginormous, adding more than $50 billion annually to the state's economy (not including the impact of agriculture on other sectors, such as shipping and warehousing). To put this in perspective, that $50 billion is the largest ag amount for any state and it's reportedly 12.5% of total agricultural production for all 50 states.

On the other side of the border, Nevada's ag output totals $765 million, a fraction of California's. Of the total, around $515 million (67.3%) comes from cattle, calves, chicken eggs, turkey, and trout and the rest from hay, onions, potatoes, wheat, and garlic.

California's Border Protection Stations are checking for vegetative material (fruits, vegetables, plants, etc.) that are in violation of state or federal plant-quarantine laws and the 16 BPS located on major highways entering the state confiscate more than 80,000 lots of plant materials from the 20 million private vehicles and seven million commercial vehicles that enter the Golden State every year.

So California is much more susceptible to, and worried about, bugs and diseases carried into the state via plants and produce than Nevada.

Also, we should point out that California ag officials aren't particularly worried about infestations coming from Nevada; they regularly wave vehicles with Nevada license plates through the checkpoints. They're mainly concerned with vehicles from points east of Nevada and north and south of California.

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jpfromla Feb-02-2023

Summer Job

Gosh... I thought it was so that Sacramento politicians kids could have summer jobs, waving cars thru at $25 bucks an hour.

Dave_Miller_DJTB Feb-02-2023

The checkpoint is not the problem

The questioner seems to think that the highway gets narrower at the checkpoint, and asks why NV doesn't have its own checkpoint, presumably to cause northbound traffic problems.

While the answer explains why there's no need for a NV checkpoint, it doesn't address the real question: The traffic.

It's at Primm where I-15 goes from three lanes to two. The third lane becomes the exit lane. South of Primm, the entrance ramp merges so I-15 remains two lanes into CA for 6 miles to the checkpoint. That's the bigger cause of the traffic.

While it's unknown what day the photos were taken, take a look at the Google Maps satellite view for the area. (Turn off labels and zoom in.) There's far more traffic on I-15 South than North, and most of it is the last 6 miles before Primm. South of Primm, once there's only two lanes left, the congestion seems to ease. The traffic is far worse on Sunday. Or Monday on a holiday weekend.

I-15 opens up to three lanes again after the checkpoint. 😵‍💫

Straski Feb-02-2023

Cold climate

I think another valid reason is that Nevada doesn't have a Mediterranean  climate growing region like a lot of California has. The bugs die in the cold climate of Nevada and Nevada doesn't really grow too much that would be bothered by invasive insects not already here.

Question of the Day - 02 February 2023

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