Nye County will drill its own well and build its own on-site, sewage disposal system for the new county administration building on the Calvada Eye instead of hooking up to the Utilities Inc. system, commissioners decided Tuesday.

County officials ignored a threat from Utilities Inc. to protest the decision before state agencies.

Nye County Manager Rick Osborne said it would cost Nye County $30,500 in connection fees to hook up to Utilities Inc.; $208,000 to acquire water rights; $50,000 to repair ponds at the Calvada Eye and about $10,000 in annual sewer fees.

Osborne said the county would probably have to pay $56,451 annually in water bills as well.

As an alternative, Nye County would have to spend $150,000 to build its own well and on-site, sewage disposal system and $125,000 for a pump system for fire suppression, in addition to $50,000 for remediation of the ponds and $208,000 for water rights.

"So the total dollar figure for UICN is $354,952, and if we developed our own it would be about $533,000. The only additional item that we would have that we can think of would be the electricity to run the pump if we did our own system," Osborne said.

Bob Coache, deputy state engineer with the Nevada Division of Water Resources, couldn't give an indication how the state might respond to Nye County's plan to build its own well and sewage disposal system, Osborne said.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said the county would spend $400,000 to $500,000 over 10 years having to buy water from Utilities Inc. He made the motion not to subscribe to service by Utilities Inc.

Osborne said Utilities Inc. has held out the possibility of an irrigation rate, but only for watering the landscaping.

"If they would approve that rate for us that might reduce that cost by 50 percent but there were no assurances given," Osborne said.

Darrell Lacy, director of the Nye County Nuclear Waste Projects Office, said the county would have to meter its watering of the landscaping to receive the irrigation rate.

Commissioner Joni Eastley said there's also no reasonable expectation Nye County would get the water rights back they donate to Utilities Inc.

Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said the county would spend $66,500 annually between the water and sewer fees with Utilities Inc., an amount the county could recoup in three years or less.

But Wendy Barnett, regional director of Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada, in a letter to Hollis, said it would take the county 24 years to break even. In addition to the $244,500 in additional up-front costs, she calculated the county would have to spend $13,500 annually in power costs and pump system maintenance; by comparison the county would spend $23,668 annually for service with Utilities Inc.

That doesn't include sewer service.

Barnett said the commercial septic system can't be constructed by state law if it falls within Utilities Inc.'s service territory.

Barnett's letter to Hollis noted: "Although the commissioners generally agreed that the information was incomplete and poorly presented, you personally moved to choose the option of drilling a county-owned well. Not only that, you did not ask a single question to ensure that the Board of County Commissioners had complete information before voting on the best way to spend the taxpayers' money."

The estimates for a commercial septic system were calculated for a system to be built in phases that would be permitted to process up to 15,000 gallons per minute.

Utilities Inc. Vice-President of Operations Paul Burris noted septic issues already add to nitrate issues in Nye County, as in Bullhead City, Ariz., where a groundwater basin was saturated with septic tanks.

Last August, commissioners approved a $1.4 million contract with Pac-Van Inc. to buy a modular building for the new administration building. Of that amount, $701,750 is the estimated cost for the building itself, the remainder is for the stucco finish, roofing system, theater seats for the meeting room, concrete foundations, performance bond and installation.

Burris said in a phone interview after the vote, county officials got some of the price quotes wrong. Burris added his company has offered to revisit the county's past water usage and allow the county to conserve its water usage to modify the amount of water rights that have to be dedicated to Utilities Inc.

"When it comes to state law, our understanding is if sewer and water service is available, it's state law to tie in. Our utility has no choice but to protest and protect the current customers of Pahrump," Burris said.

"We will intervene in the well-permitting process because if they are allowed to drill a well, we need to show that well will have no draw-down effect on customers in the surrounding area that are being provided with water by Utilities Inc.," he said.

Burris said his company is concerned the county would be installing a commercial septic system near potable water wells Utilities Inc. owns on nearby Dandelion Road.

Burris said his company will protest in front of the Nevada Division of Water Resources and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

"It's still state law. The state law does not dictate whether you are a government agency or not, whether you're exempt or not," he said.

Commissioners didn't comment on the threat of a protest.

Eastley said the agenda item was very confusing. "It wasn't clear to me what the bottom line on anything was going to be," she said.

In a related matter, county commissioners approved buying 84.96 acre feet of water rights from RDSW Asset Holdings, the low bidder, for $4,800 per acre foot, or $407,808.

"We have done research on the water rights, we found out they are in good standing," Community Planner Cheryl Beeman said.