Defendants named in a suit filed by at least 15 plaintiffs alleging improper installation of septic systems were keeping quiet as of press time.

The suits named a variety of building contractors but all include defendants Jim Pike Well Drilling; Charles Abbott and Associates, the company that runs the Nye County Building and Safety Department; Leisure Homes Corp. and Mego Financial Corp., descendants of the bankrupt Preferred Equities Corp.

The Nevada Supreme Court last year rejected this type of class-action lawsuit, so suits are now being filed individually.

Each suit was filed by attorney Jeffrey Ferguson of Henderson.

The different building contractors and home installers cited as defendants read like a litany of valley contracting firms, including Red Rock Construction, Sun Valley Homes of Pahrump, Strickland Construction, Ron Murphy Construction, Desert Sand and Gravel, Palm Harbor Homes, Fleetwood Home Centers, Billy Kuhn Construction, the Terry Group LLC, KLH Construction and Spalding Construction.

A typical suit charges the properties were located on expansive or hydro-collapsible soils, which expand or collapse when wet. The properties are required to be properly designed to withstand effects on the soil from septic systems.

Each suit said the plaintiffs believe that the individual septic disposal system "installed at the subject property was inadequately designed, constructed and/or manufactured and/or installed despite being installed in an area notoriously underlain with moisture-sensitive soils."

The defects and deficiencies include, but are not limited to, improper design and construction of home foundations, drainage systems and septic systems in light of the hydro-collapsible and/or expansive soils and resulting foundation and system failures resulting in septic system "malfunctions, saturated soils, depressed soils, contaminated soils, contaminated water."

The suit charges the improper installation caused sewage flowing over plaintiffs' land; discolored soils above the leach fields; seepage of wastewater through the ground; depression in the soils above leach fields; collapse of the septic system and leach fields; ponding of effluent on the ground; sink holes or fissures; sewer backups; tilting and/or collapse of the foundations and slabs; cracking of the interior and exterior walls; deterioration of concrete due to sulfate attack and other problems.

"Defective conditions at issue herein were not readily discoverable by reasonable inspection at the time of purchase of the subject property. Plaintiffs only became sufficiently aware of the defects long after the time of purchase," a typical suit states.

The suit alleges the defendants failed to make repairs, and the few repairs made failed or were in violation of building, health and safety codes and requirements.

The suit adds, "defendants have and are engaged in activities designed to spoil and destruct evidence of (septic system) failures throughout the affected subdivisions by covering up and disguising with gravel the visible evidence of ... failures, i.e., saturated, dark and discolored soils above the leach fields on the subject lots."

Plaintiffs say the defendants failed to exercise reasonable care in the permitting of the septic systems, percolation tests, design, inspection, construction oversight, planning, engineering and other work.

The damages resulted in properties being reduced in value, and amount to a danger to physical and mental well being. The plaintiffs incurred expert fees and costs, repair costs and legal fees.

The suit claims that the "defendants represented that the subject lots were acceptable for the construction of residential housing and the installation of (septic systems); the subject property and component part ISDS were free of defects, of reasonable quality, of merchantable quality, fit for their intended purposes and would meet the ordinary expectations of home purchasers in general."

It adds, "Defendants represented and/or were required by law to ensure that the subject lots were suitable for ISDS when in fact they knew otherwise when it sold the lots."

The suit charges the defendants knew the lots would not percolate or were otherwise unsuitable for installation of septic systems.

The suit states, "Defendants submitted or accepted percolation test results they knew were inaccurate or falsified. This was done despite assurances made to the homeowner that each lot would mandatorily be tested for suitability of septic system use prior to issuance of a permit."

The suits ask for general and special damages in excess of $50,000; cost of repair and/or replacement of defects; costs to remove contaminated property; compensation for a reduction in market value; design and construction of a sewer system and water treatment plant where septic systems aren't appropriate; attorneys fees; punitive damages and other costs.

A secretary at Jim Pike Well Drilling, which is named in all the suits, said company representatives were not available Wednesday or Thursday. A secretary at Charles Abbott and Associates said only Senior Building Inspector Brent Steed could speak to the press or provide the name of the company's attorney, Steed was said to be on personal leave.

A plaintiff named in the suit -- an individual homeowner -- said he would speak only off the record. The parties have scheduled a mitigation session Wednesday. His case involved a septic system built too close to the home, causing the home foundation to become unstable.

Virtually all the addresses of the plaintiffs are located on the near northwest side of the Pahrump Valley, south of Mesquite Avenue, or in the Calvada Unit No. 2 subdivision, south of Calvada Boulevard around Dandelion Road.

Nye County Commissioners recently passed a bill requiring disclosure of soil conditions by real estate professionals in selling property. Interim Nye County Planning Director Cheryl Beaman told the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission Wednesday she has scheduled a community meeting from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Bob Ruud Community Center next Thursday to discuss the soil disclosure ordinance, after some real estate professionals said they were caught unaware by its passage.

In 2004, Ninyo and Moore, a geo-technical firm, completed a $219,000 study of the soil conditions in the Pahrump Valley as part of the master plan.

At that time, Nye County Commissioner Henry Neth claimed only one out of the 1,400 septic permits issued since Charles Abbott and Associates was contracted to run the county building and safety department had failed. That was traced to improper maintenance, he said, in response to requests by the State Board of Health back in February 2004 that Nye County draft an ordinance requiring engineer's certified percolation tests on the installation of septic systems in Pahrump Valley.

But Ferguson, the plaintiff's attorney, pointed out a 2003 State Board of Health inspection of 89 reported septic failures that found 15 systems that weren't installed incorrectly per Nevada Administrative Code. Ten were in locations where depressions or sinkholes occurred, there were four septic failures and four imminent septic failures.

Ninyo and Moore sank 100 test borings,and lab tests mainly in the southwestern part of the valley showed 54 percent of the soil sampled had a moderate to high potential for expansion when wet.

The Ninyo and Moore study concluded, "it is our opinion that previous ISDS difficulties in Pahrump, Nevada are due primarily to design and construction-related factors. It is also our opinion that maintenance-related factors, excessive discharge of wastewater and addition of inappropriate chemicals have likely also contributed to some of these difficulties."

The study stated, "due to the particularly widespread nature of moisture-sensitive soil in portions of Pahrump Ninyo and Moore recommends that the Nevada Administrative Code be supplemented and strengthened for construction of new ISDSs in the study area."