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rut it ail togetner: lecai cnouiorm in tne spring iea Dy groundwater, tiny tots with soils rated fair to poor for drainfields, and now charges that the lake is polluted by septic run-off, and we have an ugly picture of potential groundwater contamination.
And as the county’s engineer models that “worst case scenario” of leachate runoff from the proposed landfill, what should be kept in mind is that Virginia’s worst case of groundwater pollution comes not from an abandoned dump, not from a leaking landfill, and not from a chemical lagoon but from the malfunctioning septic fields in Nelson County.
If we’re going to worry about the possible threat of groundwater contamination arising from a leak in the liner of a proposed state-of-the-art landfill, we should also be worrying that groundwater might already be contaminated by malfunctioning septic felds in a substandard subdivision.
Mr. Shepherd noted that the Health Department is no longer allowed to conduct sanitary surveys in cases of suspected drainfield problems. There must be either a court order or an invitation from the homeowner before his department can evaluate an approved septic system. But Mr. Shepherd said he will meet with Rappahannock’s Board of Supervisors to explore other possibilities for determining whether a problem exists in this nonconforming subdivision, which predates the county’s zoning and subdivision controls.
The board should take him up on that offer — for the sake of the groundwater.
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