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By ROBERT T. DENNIS
Former Chairman
Rappahannock Water and Sewer Authority
One hears talk in Rappahannock County today about sewers. Possibly a sewer system for Washington. Maybe more sewers for Sperryville. Sewers in the commercial zones. As a taxpayer, this talk makes me nervous. So, I urge the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors to spend some of my tax dollars to research the issues here ahead of time — rather than after present options cease to exist. An ounce of prevention is far preferable to what would be many pounds of cure.
Unfortunately, we need look no farther than Culpeper, Fauquier, or Warren counties to see what may soon confront us — the wrong kinds of residential and commercial developments in the wrong places, not only unsightly but also environmentally and financially destabilizing. And we need go no farther than Sperryville or the county’s schools to experience the local economic impacts of ever more stringent national and state clean water requirements.
1 believe that the people of Rappahannock support those clean water requirements. We know we reside in one of Earth’s great ecosystems — the Chesapeake Bay watershed — and that it is in deep trouble, best evidenced by the near eradication of its famous oysters. Though only a tiny part of the Chesapeake ecosystem, Rappahannock and its residents have contributed to the Bay’s deterio* ration since the first land was convert* ed to tobacco in the 1700s. Now we are in process of restoration, which means we must properly dispose of our wastes — which could indeed, if we are not careful, require that we build more sewers. But, rather than build more sewers, we might better minimize the production of wastewater by focusing on the responsibili
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