Utilities Inc. receives approval to expand service territory

Without much discussion, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved Utilities, Inc. of Central Nevada’s request for expansion of its water service territory at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch in Pahrump.

The UICN will be able to expand its service territory by 120 acres that are adjacent to its existing service territory and construct a stand-alone water and wastewater infrastructure and associated facilities thanks to the decision.

UICN applies for expansion of its service territory only when it gets a request from a developer to provide service outside of its existing territory, UICN Spokesman Tom Oakley said.

“We don’t build infrastructure on ‘specs’ with the hope that we will need the expansion at some point in the future. Only when requested,” Oakley said.

“The developer pays all of the costs associated with the expansion and also is responsible for determining the timing of the expansion, including construction start dates. That’s the situation with the racetrack and would be the same in any other cases,” he said.

The Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch currently owns 407 acres of property within UICN’s service territory.

Any expansion such as the approved one has no impact on UICN’s existing customers, Oakley said.

UICN President Wendy Barnett said annexations are a “normal course of business” as UICN cannot serve outside of the PUCN approved certified service territory. Therefore, if a developer requests service outside of UICN’s service territory, an annexation proceeding before the PUCN is required.

“We are particularly excited about this development as we feel it brings tourism dollars to our community as well as new restaurants and a movie theatre,” Barnett said in a statement.

The annexation of the parcel from the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch’s territory will require “extensive” water infrastracture improvements that will include two production wells, two 550,000-gallon water storage tanks, a potable water booster pump station, and 14,000 feet of 10-and-12-inch water transmission lines.

Additionally, the annexation will include sewer infrastructure improvements.

The Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch is developing residential and commercial units on property surrounding the existing track facilities.

The expansion will potentially add 80 residential water and wastewater customers and 40 commercial water and wastewater customers.

UICN currently provides water service to 4,428 customers, including 4,024 residential customers, 326 commercial customers, 14 public authority customers and 64 irrigation customers.

Prior to receiving a permit to construct, UICN has to get 10 permits for the construction of the project.