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Water
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The Health Department’s Office of Water Programs stopped its monitoring in 1979, although records do not show who made the decision that Rappahannock Lakes no longer qualified as a public system, when the decision was reached, or the information on which the decision was based. However, the local Health Department continued to view the subdivision as designed with a public system and still served by a public system, regardless of the number of actual users.
But that opposing stance was never an issue until this spring when, during consideration of a variance application for one of the small lots in Rappahannock Lakes, the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals asked for certification that water and septic provisions meet current Health Department standards.
As far as the water issue is concerned, the upshot was the initiation of procedures by the Office of Water Programs to revoke the public water system permit for Rappahannock Lakes. During hearings on the variance, it was also learned that in September, the Health Department is scheduled to begin granting permits for private wells, further, that permits might not be forthcoming for lots in Rappahannock Lakes.
But whether local sanitarian Jack Lockhart will write permits for wells in the small-lot subdivision once the Health Department assumes authority over private water systems is now a non-issue, at least as far as a dozen or so homeowners are concerned. According to County Administrator John McCarthy, 12 to 14 new wells have been dug in Rappahanock Lakes in the last few weeks, circumventing the new regulations which require Health Department approval of private, residential water systems.
Presently, the health agency has authority over the placement of private wells only when wells are installed in conjunction withvtf septic drainfield; then a buffer distance of 100 feet for class III wells and 50 feet for grouted class II wells must be maintained.
However, that limited control will be broadened on Sept. 15 when new regulations are scheduled to take effect. Under those regulations, all residential wells require a permit and all must meet buffer distance standards “from sources of contamination” of 100 feet for a class III well and 50 feet for a class II well, according to Mr. Lockhart. The distances are greater if the well is downslope from a source of con
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