Addressing high nitrate levels in the drinking water in Grass Valley (GV) and a lack of adequate space within the Humboldt County Courthouse to accommodate changes in legislation both call for multi-million-dollar solutions—a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) for Grass Valley residents and a new, larger justice center for Humboldt County.
At their annual Board Retreat on Jan. 29, the Humboldt County Board of Commissioners discussed two of the most prominent projects that they worked on in 2023, unanimously deciding to move forward with design work for the WWTF but ultimately not coming to a substantive conclusion for the justice center project.
Nitrate Mitigation
High levels of nitrates in the drinking water sources in Grass Valley have been an issue for decades and with the help of former County Manager, Dave Mendiola, the Commissioners have been pursuing a plan to lower the levels with the use of a WWTF, whether the County constructs one or they are able to utilize the City of Winnemucca’s WWTF.
The County has received a five-million-dollar grant from the Nevada State Water Conservation and Infrastructure Initiative to use on non-construction costs of the WWTF project and officials explained that although the Board is unsure of a possible site for a facility, they will be able to utilize the funds for design work, which will be done by DOWL Engineering.
The funds were received in September of 2023 and must be committed and expended by a certain time, putting the Board in a time crunch to use them and make a small dent in the anticipated cost of the project, which will be tens of millions if they must construct their own facility.
According to County Manager Don Kalkoske, when the County Manager previously met with the City to discuss using their facility for water treatment, their facility would be very close to max capacity with the additional users and would require an expansion. With its relative newness and with the anticipated growth from the influx of people from the Lithium mine, the City was not receptive to sharing the facility at the time.
DOWL Senior Civil Engineer David Pulley explained that the major disadvantage to sharing the City’s facility, located west of Winnemucca towards Jungo, would be the groundwater recharge. The water would be taken from the Grass Valley Water Basin and recharged into the Humboldt River Water Basin but, there are ways to transfer and inject the water back into the Grass Valley Water Basin, according to DOWL, but it would require extra resources.
However, the major benefit of sharing a WWTF with the City, according to Pulley, would be not having duplicated services, thus major cost savings and only one facility to maintain.
Kalkose explained that the County’s goal is also to get more funding that would cover the connection fees to a system for Grass Valley residents as well, which would be significant for those that live outside of city limits.
The Commission approved a motion to utilize $2.7 million of the funds towards the design plans for the collection system, which is not dependent on where the facility is. DOWL anticipates that a best-case scenario would have the design plan completed in 12 to 15 months.
Commission chairman Jesse Hill directed Kalkoske to set a meeting with the City to determine their final stance on the County paying for an expansion of their WWTF in order to connect GV users to it and to “hash out” the details.
Justice Center
According to Township Justice of the Peace Jim Loveless, special issues coupled with legislation passed in 2019 requiring that domestic violence cases be held with jury trials and courtrooms that are out of Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, the courts are out of space and are in need of some sort of solution.
Cushing Terrell - Architecture, Engineering, and Design Firm (CTA) has evaluated many different options for years to address space issues in the Humboldt County Courthouse such as renovating the current courthouse or expanding it, but has found that the costs to renovate or expand would be so significant that it is likely the best option to construct a new facility that can meet all of Humboldt County’s needs.
The current courthouse would also not be abandoned but would be able to accommodate other justice offices that there is currently no space for if the courts were to be moved as well.
The Commissioners have discussed the biggest issue with the project many times, which is the cost, and how to come up with the cost of a new standalone justice facility at approximately $14.7 million, a new HVAC system in the current courthouse estimated to cost $3.9 million, and a renovation to the main entrance to the current courthouse that would cost approximately $1.8 million, according to CTA estimates.
On the forefront of ideas to explore for funding is an agreement with Public Finance Infrastructure Corporation (PFIC) that would have the lease back program where the County is able to own the land that the justice center would sit on and lease the building from PFIC until it is paid for within an agreed upon term, not requiring that the County to take on any of the debt.
Other funding sources would include raising taxes. Commissioner Tom Hoss suggested that the question of whether to raise taxes to build a new justice center be put on the ballot and Commissioner Ken Tipton pointed out that the County would not have enough money for the project without alternative funding even if the cap for raising property taxes was maxed out.
Humboldt County Sheriff Angel Cardenas also asked that the Commissioners consider the need for a new detention center, which would be about $37.2 million based on estimates from CTA and could be combined with the justice center project (totaling approximately $57,542,000).
The motion to table the item until after the County approves a budget for the coming fiscal year passed in a split vote, with Commissioner Hill in opposition, explaining that he thought the Board needs to make more headway on the project now.