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partment has no authority yet over the siting of private wells, Mr. Shepherd is warning of potential problems, both with health hazards and financing, should safe separation distances be ignored. “If you drill a well in close proximity to a source of pollution, you risk contamination of the water supply and most probably create a situation that our office could not approve in the future,” he notes in a letter sent earlier this month to all property owners in the Rappahannock Lakes subdivision.
“We’re offering our advice, help and assistance now,” the sanitation manager explained in a telephone interview. “We are encouraging landowners to adhere to those separation distances (before the new standards become law).”
Landowners who ignore the safety standards “may be setting the stage for future problems,” Mr. Shepherd continued. Not only would they be risking potentially dangerous contamination of drinking water supplies: “We are called upon frequently to certify water and sanitation systems for mortage purposes,” the health official noted, adding this certification — and bank financing —will not be forthcoming if the separation distance between water supply and pollution source is not met.
And who gets sued by the disgruntled landowner told he can’t get a septic permit and therefore can’t build on his lot because the only site for the field is too close to his neighbor’s well?
Probably the Health Department, Mr. Shepherd conceded. The agency has “no way to make the offending party correct the situation that’s preventing the permit issuance,” he noted. And if the “injured” property owner brings a civil suit against the neighbor, then the neighbor would in all likelihood initiate legal action against the Health Department, either for the original issuance of the permit for the public water supply or for its recent revocation, he said.
As to liability on the part of the county —which never had regulatory power over either the subdivision or its defunct public water system — Mr. Shepherd saw none. In the event a Rappahannock Lakes property owner seeks relief from denial of a well or septic permit, “the county is probably in the best position of all,” the sanitation manager concluded.
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