Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Sparks, NV

Sparks is a city in Washoe County, Nevada, just east of Reno, founded in 1904 and incorporated on March 15, 1905, named for Governor John Sparks, and with 108,445 residents at the 2020 census it is the fifth most populous city in Nevada.

Sparks began in 1904 when the Southern Pacific Railroad built a switch yard and maintenance sheds there and moved its division point from Wadsworth, offering workers 50-by-140-foot lots for one dollar and moving their houses from Wadsworth free of charge, and the town was first called Harriman after railroad president E. H. Harriman before being renamed Sparks.

Sparks had 42,414 households according to the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates, with an average of 2.58 people per household.

Sparks grew from 2,500 residents in 1910 to 94,728 in 2010 and 108,445 in 2020, an increase of 14.5 percent between the 2010 and 2020 censuses.

The city covers 36.60 square miles, of which 36.49 square miles are land, at an elevation of 4,413 feet, and it has a semi-arid climate with a record high of 108 degrees Fahrenheit on July 11, 2002, and a record low of minus 19 degrees on February 7, 1989.

Sparks is the headquarters of Sierra Nevada Corporation, which in 2024 was awarded a 13 billion dollar U.S. Air Force contract to develop a successor to the E-4B airborne command post, and the Haws Corporation makes drinking fountains at a 210,000-square-foot plant in the city, its founder Luther Haws having invented the drinking fountain in 1906.

Tesla's Gigafactory Nevada opened in 2016 in nearby Storey County and employed about 11,000 people in 2025, many of whom live in Sparks.

Downtown Sparks centers on Victorian Square, a pedestrian-friendly district across from the Nugget Casino Resort, whose tower was finished in 1984 and gave Sparks its first high-rise casino, and the city hosts the annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off.

Sparks Marina Park was built on a naturally occurring aquifer and offers windsurfing, sailing, swimming, scuba diving, fishing, and boating, and the Nugget Event Center is an 8,600-seat outdoor concert amphitheater in downtown Sparks.

Public education in Sparks is administered by the Washoe County School District, whose high schools in the city include Edward C. Reed High School, Sparks High School, Spanish Springs High School, and Hug High School, and the Old Glendale School, built in 1864, is listed as Nevada Historical Marker 169.