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tamination, with an extra 25-foot setback necessary for each five percent in grade, the local sanitarian noted.
Assuming those standards are met, will permits be given in Rappahannock Lakes? The answer depends on answers to othei questions, says district sanitation manager Charles Shepherd.
The questions Mr. Shepherd has posed to E. D. Simmons, regional sanitation manager for the northwest region, are the same that County Administrator John McCarthy sees as critical:
• what happens when a landowner applies for a septic field on his lot and the field cannot be installed without coming within 50 feet of the class III well on an adjoining small lot?
• if the existing well was installed without a permit, will the septic field take precedence and be approved by the Health Department, effectively condemning the private water supply next door?
• or will the septic permit be denied in order to protect the existing private water system?
• and if a disgruntled landowner decides to take legal action to challenge the “taking” of his property — either through denial of the septic permit or condemnation of the private well — who does he sue?
“We’re trying as hard as we can to get answers,” said Mr. Shepherd in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, noting that he has followed up an Aug. 17 letter to the regional sanitation manager with several phone calls. And until he gets those answers, the Health Department is taking no action on several applications for septic fields in the Rappahannock Lakes subdivision, he said.
Both the Health Department and Rappahannock’s Board of Supervisors would like to see the small-lot subdivision served by a public water supply, Mr. Shepherd confirmed, but neither has the power to force the original developer, Dr. James E. Williams of Front Royal, to upgrade the system. “From a public health standpoint, we’re not enthused about putting wells on small lots in close proximity to septic fields,” he explained.
At present, those lot owners who were formerly connected to the public water system and who have septic fields already approved can put a well in anywhere they choose without adhering to the minimum separation distance. And they may continue to be able to do so, even after Sept. 15. “There’s still nothing definite” on when the new regulations become operative, the district sanitation manager reported. For budgetary and planning purposes, the local Health Departments were
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