Off-Grid Living in White Pine County, Nevada

Here's what I've found researching off-grid rules for White Pine County, Nevada. A quick note up front: White Pine County and the City of Ely share a Regional Planning District, but Ely runs its own charter government with separate zoning and building authority. Everything below is about unincorporated White Pine County. If your parcel is inside Ely city limits, you need to call the city, not the county.

Zoning. The county has an adopted Title 17 Zoning ordinance, administered by the White Pine County Building Department, passed by the Board of County Commissioners under the state's general zoning enabling law (NRS Chapter 278). Whether a given parcel lets you just plant a dwelling, RV, or alternative structure on raw land depends on which zoning district it sits in. I couldn't confirm from the code excerpts which districts allow informal raw-land occupancy, so that's a call to the Building Department before you buy or move onto land.

Dwellings, tiny homes, RVs. County code has defined categories for "manufactured home" and "modular home," including a manufactured-housing chapter for residential zones and flood-zone foundation standards for manufactured homes. There's no separate "tiny home" category in what I found. RVs as permanent residences aren't clearly addressed in the code sections I reviewed, so confirm directly with the county.

Building permits. White Pine County has adopted the 2018 International code family (Building, Energy Conservation, Fire, Mechanical, Plumbing, Residential codes) plus the 2011 National Electrical Code, with local structural criteria (soils, frost depth, seismic zone, wind speed) baked in. The Building Department issues permits and inspects unincorporated-county construction. Permit cost is based on construction valuation, but I don't have exact fee figures, so ask the department for a quote.

Septic. This is the big one to understand: White Pine is treated as a "rural county" by the state, meaning individual sewage disposal systems (ISDS) are permitted directly by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH), not a local health district. State approval of your ISDS is required before the county will issue a building permit for anything needing one. The rules live in NAC Chapter 444.

Greywater. Not confirmed at the county level. I didn't find a county or DPBH page specifically on residential greywater reuse; NAC 444 covers sewage disposal generally. Ask DPBH Environmental Health or the county Building Department directly.

Rainwater harvesting. Nevada's statewide law (AB 138) permits rooftop rainwater collection, and I found no White Pine County ordinance adding restrictions. Treat this as the state baseline applying here.

Wells and water rights. The Nevada Division of Water Resources (NDWR) is the state authority on water rights and well permitting; I didn't find a separate county permitting layer. Septic applications tied to a well do require a well log as documentation.

Off-grid / disconnected from utilities. I found no county ordinance banning grid disconnection. But your building permit and occupancy still hinge on having a state-approved ISDS if you're not on sewer, since occupancy sign-off ties back to sanitation compliance.

Bottom line: expect two layers here, state DPBH for septic, and county for zoning/building, with Ely city hall as a completely separate track if you're inside town.