LAS VEGAS -- Water and sewer rates will go up for customers of Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada next month, after the Public Utilities Commission voted 3-0 Wednesday to approve the company's rate request.

PUC spokesman Sean Sever said the new rates are expected to take effect Dec. 1. Sewer rates will go up an average of 87 percent, water rates will rise 34 percent, Sever said.

Utilities Inc. had 4,186 water customers as of the end of 2006, the largest water and sewer provider in Pahrump.

Utilities Inc. customers had been paying 72 cents per 1,000 gallons of water in the winter and 82 cents in the summer, on top of a base rate of $9.90 per month.

The base rate for water use will stay the same. But the company is now instituting a tiered rate for water usage to encourage conservation.

Customers will be charged 99 cents per 1,000 gallons, which will rise to $1.67 per 1,000 gallons after the first 8,000 gallons per month and $2.54 per 1,000 gallons after 30,000 gallons.

PUC legal counsel Tammy Cordova estimated the average water bill for a residential customer would rise from $20.68 per month to $27.84. The average residential customer uses 14,000 gallons of water per month, she said.

The base sewer rate will increase from $23.60 per month to $44.13 for most residential customers.

Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada filed its first rate increase request since taking over the system from Central Nevada Utilities Corp. last December. CNUC sold the water and sewer system in 2001.

A sparsely attended consumer session on the rate request was held at Mountain Falls Golf Club in Pahrump last April. Utilities Inc. officials say customers were notified of that session in their monthly bills.

Nye County Commissioners filed an 11th-hour request to intervene after a settlement was already reached between Utilities Inc. and the PUC.

The county was able to wrestle some concessions from Utilities Inc. requiring the company to extend dead end water and sewer lines on Blagg Road, Dandelion Street, Pahrump Valley Boulevard, Spy Glass Boulevard, Laguna Street and Torrey Pine Avenue.

Utilities Inc. also agreed to enclose equalization tanks at the Willow Creek golf course sewer plant that have been the subject of odor complaints.

The utility company also agreed to provide customers "a reasonable free allowance" on extending water and sewer lines. Company representatives also agreed to meet quarterly with Nye County representatives to iron out any consumer complaints.

A handful of Pahrump residents showed up to voice complaints during a PUC hearing Nov. 16 that was incorrectly noticed as a consumer session. The PUC was only scheduled to consider accepting the settlement between Nye County and Utilities Inc. at that meeting.

Customers took the opportunity to request the PUC levy the increased cost of infrastructure on new development, not on rates paid by existing customers.

Public Utilities commission attorney Alaina Burtenshaw said the cost of extending water and sewer service to new homes is already high enough to put a damper on development.

Pahrump customers learned at that Nov. 16 meeting Utilities Inc. is expected to file another request for a rate increase to cover the cost of improvements specified by Nye County, estimated to cost $785,000. The company is required by law to wait at least three years to file its next rate increase request.

Utilities Inc. wants to recoup $1.6 million in investments in its water division and $1.8 million in sewer improvements with the current rate request.

Nye County Commission Chairman Gary Hollis said he was unaware of the PUC hearing Wednesday. He voiced opposition to paying for more infrastructure by increasing the rates that "just keeps going and going and going."

"Once they've paid off their infrastructure I think the rates ought to be reduced and part of that go back to the ratepayers," Holllis said.