When Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada began conducting fixture audits last year to determine who was using water and sewer service illegally, one of the biggest scofflaws uncovered in the investigation could have been Nye County itself.

Utilities Inc. claims the county never applied for sewer service for the Pahrump Justice Facility and the Pahrump jail dating back to 1999.

The county was given a $143,684 bill last December for the jail and a $58,106 tab for the justice center for sewer service dating from March 2002, when Utilities Inc. took over the system of Central Nevada Utilities Corp. following the bankruptcy of Preferred Equities Corp.

In March, Utilities Inc. Regional Vice President Paul Burris sent a letter to Nye County Manager Rick Osborne agreeing to settle on a $68,372.64 bill for six months of service for both buildings, of which the county eventually paid $5,096.14 in sewer fees but not the $49,944 in sewer plant capacity fees.

Osborne sent a letter to Utilities Inc. May 15 stating the rest of the charges were stale, dated bills.

The county cited Nevada Revised Statute 244.250 which states "accounts against any county shall be presented to the board of county commissioners within six months from the time such claims or accounts become due or payable."

But Burris replied, "the NRS says it's related to stale bills. They never applied for service so they never got a bill."

"So our attorneys have been directed to collect the full amount back to 2002," he said.

Osborne said he told Burris it's the responsibility of the utility companies to process the paperwork when a customer installs a water or sewer line.

"If you as a homeowner hired someone to run a water and sewer line, are you expected to go down and make the application? It's up to the contractor doing it," Osborne said.

The company in its original bill calculated annual sewer charges of $15,326.40 for the jail and $7,440 for the justice center from 2002 through 2006. The annual charges went up to $17,714.97 and $7,979.50 respectively in 2007. For January through June of 2008, the bill came to $14,331.42 for the jail and $6,957 for the justice center.

To that, Utilities Inc. added on sewer capacity fees of $42,546 for the jail and $8,970.49 for the justice center. Then there's the connection fee of $42,546.15 and $8,970.49 respectively.

After a semi-annual customer informational meeting at Mountain Falls last month, Burris said the county could resolve the issue before the company's upcoming application for a rate increase is filed in December.

"It helps the consumer. Well now the county is saying we aren't paying it. So when we go in the next rate case, that $68,000 is going to be picked up by the current residents and that's not fair. On top of that they never applied for service, they actually hired a contractor to do an illegal tap back then, they never contacted the utilities. We've got records to show that."

Burris said the situation is ironic since it was Nye County that led the charge when Utilities Inc. faced litigation in 2004 by a pair of local developers for breach of contract.

"Here they're sending 15,000 gallons a day to that plant that's not registered and they're not paying," Burris said.