^Rappaijannock -^efog

^Rappaijannock -^efog

Established 1877

ARTHUR W. ARUNDEL

Publisher

JOHN T. TOLER

Executive Vice President ! BARBARA C. WAYLAND

General Manager

An Independent Newspaper

Published Every Wednesday

LOU HATTER

Executive Editor

SHARON KILPATRICK

Editor

ANN BROWN

Account Executive

To Subscribe Phone 703-675-3338 t 1 / BY MAIL: $19 a year in Rappahannock

$24 a year elsewhere in the United States PACK COPIES: Recent 3 months, 50c - Older copies to 1960, $3 (as • available) I _/' i * I OFFICE: Rappahannock News Building, Washington, Va. 22747-0059

Telephone: 703-675-3338 FAX: 703-675-3088 • HOURS: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday-Friday I Member, Audit Bureau of Circulation.

-e

Audit

Bureau

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2,1994

Editoriol

*, - ■ - • it -y..,-*: » ~ i ..~ ^ ~ r ....

[ Sewer

Z Suddenly most county boards, are discussing the i ^possibility of providing sewer service to the schools, proposed ■General Commercial Overlay Zone) and possibly the town of •Washington. , £ These discussions were sparked by the cost the schools jire encountering in meeting new state requirements for 1 jjsewage treatment with present facilities, possible problems •with soils for septic tanks and drainfields in the commercial jarea, and retiring Treasurer Brad Fisher’s comments about ^Washington’s future. m I A sewer system to serve all these areas presents problems because the town is in the Rush River watershed, ■while the schools and the commercial zone are in the jCovington River watershed. n Z If a plant is to serve both areas, sewage must be pumped Srom one watershed to the other. That may well cost less than separate treatment plants, but surely some study of the feasibility of such a project needs to be done. Such a study Should also consider which river the plant will discharge into. Z Timing has become essential because the school system is involved in using funds from Virginia Public School Authority ponds. Those funds can be used to acquire land for Educational purposes. They can be used to provide sewage for ihe schools. They probably cannot be used for a multi-user pewage system, and the school system has less than a year to Spend the bond money or request an extension. ; There are certainly other educational uses to which the Inoney can be put. The halls at both schools are once again

filing with trash cans set out to catch water from leaking poofs. The high school needs more classrooms now, and the Seed will become more critical. : However, the school system needs to know that its sewer peeds will be met at the elementary school by August 1997, or It must go it alone in meeting sewer needs now while bond monies remain. • The school administration has used a figure of $200,000 to provide a “package sewage treatment plant” for the Elementary school. Environmental Systems Services of Culpeper has been advising the schools on how to comply with ptate rules for sewage treatment, and that figure was Apparently an ESS estimate. It seems low to us. » Many options must be explored before a decision is peached, and time is running out. v