Frequently Asked Questions

• Lake Wildwood – Zone 1 
• Lake of the Pines – Zone 2 
• North San Juan – Zone 4 
• Gold Creek – Zone 5 
• Penn Valley – Zone 6 
• Mountain Lake Estates – Zone 7 
• Cascade Shores – Zone 8
• Eden Ranch – Zone 9
• Higgins Village – Zone 11
• Valley Oak Court – Zone 12

See map of the zones.

Three primary reasons drive changes to service charges: increasing regulatory mandates, aging infrastructure, and inflation.  It is common practice to conduct a rate study every four to five years. The District conducts rate studies once every five years. The District performs standard operations and maintenance, major repairs, and critical upgrades to the sewer system. The studies also look at: increasing costs related to utilities, general liability insurance, materials, and construction as well as fuel and equipment costs.     

No.  Nevada County Sanitation District does not manage any utilities inside of the city limits of Grass Valley or Nevada City, and they do not oversee private septic systems. (For private septic system information, go to Nevada County Environmental Health)

The following items clog lines, cause backups, expensive plumber calls and damage equipment at the wastewater facility.

Do not flush or put down the drain:

• Wipes
• Paper products including paper towels
• Feminine care products, such as tampons, applicators, sanitary napkins
• Food and do not put food down the garbage disposal
• Bleach
• Plastic
• Gum
• Fish 
• Contact lenses
• Chemicals, including mediations, paint or motor oil
• Pills
• Band-aids
• Teeth-whitening strips
• Cotton balls, swabs and pads
• Dental floss
• Diapers
• Nursing pads
• Condoms
• Kitty litter or bird cage liner
• Cigarette butts
• Hair
• Fats, oils and grease (FOG)

Immediately call Nevada County Sanitation if you see or hear a sewer alarm 530-265-1555. Emergency calls are accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Call the Nevada County Sanitation District 530-265-1411

Call the Nevada County Sanitation District so they can access the problem. 530-265-1411

Nevada County Sanitation District operations are designed to be a self-contained enterprise, meaning revenues from user rates must be used for purposes of providing those services.  Revenues from sewer rates cannot be used for general County operations.

NCSD periodically reviews the current rates to assess suitability with operations. As utilities, environmental regulations, operational expenses, and required capital improvement costs rise, these costs cannot be covered without corresponding rate increases. 

Every community has different conditions that affect the ability to provide safe and reliable sewer service. The primary reasons that Nevada County Sanitation Districts sewer rates are higher than those of some surrounding communities are:

• A large number of sewage pump stations
  Nevada County Sanitation District has more pump stations than a typical municipality because of its terrain.  The same features that make Nevada County so beautiful to live in, increase the difficulty to transfer wastewater from the community where it is generated to the Wastewater Treatment Plant to be treated.  These pump stations help sewage flow past an elevated area, such as a hill, by pumping or lifting the sewage from a lower to higher elevation. Once past the elevated point, the sewage can flow downhill again via gravity. Pump stations are expensive to operate and require a large amount of staff time. In addition, failures can result in sanitary sewer overflows and fines from the state. Gravity is the most cost-effective way to transport water and wastewater.
• Small size of the utility system
   Because Nevada County Sanitation District operates 10 small utility system zones, it does not benefit from the economies a larger served system that can spread the costs of operations among more customers.
   In addition, because small communities deal with smaller amounts of gross funds, they need larger savings levels to be fiscally sound and to satisfy criteria established by bond rating agencies that assess the town’s creditworthiness. A reasonable savings level — also called “fund balance” or “reserve funds” — for a utility is critical to ensure the District does not have cash flow problems and can handle unexpected revenue shortfalls, expenditure overruns, and emergencies. District policy, and the current rate study, recommend maintaining an undesignated fund balance of 50 percent of annual operating expenditures.
• Commitment to care for the  utility system, customers, and environment
   Water and sewer services are expensive to provide. When it comes to maintaining its drinking and wastewater infrastructure, the United States fails as a whole, earning respective grades of D and D+ in the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The grades are slightly better in California — with a C- for wastewater infrastructure, according to the 2019 Report Card for California’s Infrastructure. Often there is a reluctance to raise rates to recover the costs associated with providing sewer service, notes a video (Full Cost Pricing of Water) on full-cost pricing of water, provided by the Environmental Finance Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
  Nevada County Sanitation District strives to do better. The operations approach includes taking care of what it has. Sanitation sewer bills reflect property owners' contribution to the labor and the physical infrastructure required to have wastewater removed when desired and safely returned to the environment. The District does not make a profit from providing sewer service nor does it use sewer revenue for purposes other than the operation, maintenance, and improvement of the District’s sewer system.

The money has funded the maintenance and repairs of the sewer collection and treatment system and current infrastructure throughout the District's service areas.  Much of the current infrastructure was put into place in the 1970s with various updates and expansions taking place each decade to follow. For example, maintenance costs for one mile of pipeline that might need to be replaced can cost almost $1 million per mile, and a major piece of equipment in one of our plants costs around $800,000. These costs add up as we work to keep our systems safe, reliable, and prepared for customer needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 

Self-Performing Work 

Instead of sub-contracting work, the District performs all but the very large or very complicated work. The District will complete tasks like manhole and pipe rehabilitation and repair, sludge removal, submersible pump rebuilds, lift station mechanical rebuilds, aeration header repairs, emergency pipeline replacements, permanent standby generator replacements, and some large treatment plant equipment rehabilitations.  Self-performing this work allows for cost savings by the District including not being subject to contractor markups for materials, equipment, and labor.  Self-procurement of the equipment and replacement parts allows us to “shop around” for the best pricing for higher quality components.  

Zone Consolidation 

After careful evaluation, the District discovered cost savings by consolidating several of the closer zones, reducing maintenance, operating, and administrative expenses. Five sewer zones were consolidated into two sewer zones, utilizing a new infrastructure. The first consolidation involved the Lake Wildwood, Penn Valley, and Valley Oak Court treatment systems, which merged into one treatment zone. The second consolidation merged the Lake of the Pines, Darkhorse and Higgins Village systems into one treatment zone. These consolidations allow, not only the shared use of treatment facilities, but also help reduce operations cost by combining maintenance and administrative expenses. The consolidations will also see three of the five wastewater treatment facilities decommissioned saving the need for expensive upgrades and regular maintenance.