TONOPAH -- The state engineer's office can't transfer relinquished water rights to Nye County, but the county could ask property owners to donate those water rights directly to it, commissioners were told Wednesday.

Commissioners were set to vote on a bill that changes a county ordinance enacted in November that requires owners parceling property 4.5 gross acres or less in Amargosa Valley, Big Smoky Valley and Ralston Valley, to donate two acre feet of water rights to the state engineer for each parcel.

After hearing from Deputy State Engineer Bob Coache, commissioners passed a motion by Peter Liakopoulos to reject the proposed amendment.

The requirement to donate water rights has been in effect in the Pahrump Regional Planning District since 1999. A concern over rapid parceling of lots in places considered in an over-draught of the available water supply, like neighboring Amargosa Valley, led to enactment of the ordinance.

The anticipation of the county regulation led to furious parceling of lots in Amargosa Valley to beat the requirement, with 57 parcel map applications considered by county commissioners during a December meeting.

The amended ordinance up for approval Wednesday would have merely inserted the words, that the water rights relinquished would be then relinquished by the state engineer's office to Nye County. The intent is to have the water rights available by the county for municipalities that develop.

"You wanted the water rights to relinquish through the state engineer's office to Nye County. That authority is not possible. You could ask the water rights be relinquished directly to Nye County. That is doable," Coache said.

He added, "I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish, trying to withhold those water rights in perpetuity."

During a previous Nye County Commission meeting, County Manager Ron Williams mentioned the difficulty of keeping track of existing county water rights.

Coache quoted from Senate Bill 275, which took effect Tuesday, which allows public water systems to receive credits for the water rights appropriated to the state engineer's office. If a 100-lot subdivision came into Amargosa Valley, for example, and 200 acre feet of water rights were relinquished, Coache said a public utility formed in that valley with a water system could serve those lots without the benefit of a water right, due to those credits.

"You would not have to take additional water rights and move them to that subdivision and you would not have to maintain water rights for 10 or 20 years to be able to serve that subdivision at some point in the future," Coache said.

The cost of Nye County to maintain its water rights for 20 or 30 years would be expensive, Coache said. There would be administrative fees for the application to change the point of diversion and the cost of a licensed water surveyor, he said.

A pair of parcel map applications was approved Wednesday, which will require the donation of water rights under the new ordinance.

John Lawrence Moog received approval to subdivide 100 acres off Highway 95 in Beatty into an 81-acre parcel, an 11.6-acre parcel and a 4.6-acre parcel.

A request by Victoria Capital Corp. to divide 265 acres into five 40-acre parcels and a 65-acre parcel in Amargosa Valley was approved. The lots are located between Old West Road and Amargosa Farm Road.

There was a brief discussion about waiving the contour requirements on the Beatty property. Williams said the county adopted the requirement in 1991, after the Nevada Division of Health wanted maps to determine if it was suitable for septic tanks, which may not be permissable if they're located on a steep hillside. Contours are now used to determine if the property will drain, he said.

Williams said a new bill under consideration will toughen requirements to show contours in planning applications.

"They typically are not waived in Pahrump. They don't even come back and ask for waivers of contours in Pahrump. They're just part of the engineering map," Williams said.