Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 18, 1990 TAG: 9003162547
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Hersha Evans-Wardell
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We need to ask, and ask quickly, if Ellett Valley can sustain current and future development that paving Nellies Cave Road will encourage. According to the county comprehensive plan, the soil survey
The western side of Ellett Valley is a karst area; the steep slopes, underlain by limestone/dolomite, contribute to thin clay soils. Both characteristics make the area unsuitable for septic systems.
According to the Water Resources Research Center, septic systems are the major source of ground-water contamination. They are not designed to protect ground water but to prevent surface ponding of effluent. Septic systems are especially hazardous in karst areas where the bedrock is fractured and often riddled with channels that provide direct access to underground water sources. While much of Montgomery County is on karst, the steep slopes in this area contribute to more rapid movement of water and have less soil to filter out contaminants before they reach the fractured rock below.
Montgomery County cannot afford to wait for state standards to be strengthened or for large-scale contamination to occur. The supervisors and county agencies must exercise stricter control on the density of houses that use septic systems.
Five- to 10-acre lots have been suggested for steep slopes. Also, perk tests must be supplemented with site-specific criteria, water quality must be monitored and inexpensive water testing must be made available for a variety of substances associated with septic system failure, such as fecal coliform bacteria, nitrates and trichlorethylene, an ingredient in septic system cleaners and a known carcinogen.
County officials must distribute information on maintenance and the hazards associated with these systems and begin providing public water and sewer to county residents.
Ann Hess, chairwoman of the board, has stated that more restrictive zoning would infringe on developers' rights. Yet it is current zoning, along with the lack of public water/sewer in the valley and inadequate septic-system standards that are putting the water quality of present and future valley residents at great risk and most likely will interfere with their right to safe drinking water.
Supervisors shouldn't assume developers have an inalienable right to develop, regardless of the environmental hazards or the effects on established neighborhoods. Development is speculative and developers take their chances.
Deercroft developers, for instance, knew part of Nellies Cave Road was privately owned, and knew of the problems associated with karst terrains. It was not the supervisors' job to partially eliminate, through condemnation, the risks the developers knowingly accepted before buying their land.
In seizing land in the Nellies Cave community, the supervisors also forgot about the rights of established neighborhoods and of citizens in this community whose ancestors have owned and occupied their land for at least 130 years. Surely, their rights as an existing neighborhood deserve more protection than do the rights of developers who bought their land in 1985, not to farm or eventually pass down to their children but to profit from its scenic views. The condemned land should be returned.
And as a historic site, the Nellies Cave area is equally as valuable as Smithfield Plantation or the Wharton House in giving us a sense of where we've been. But, unlike the others, the Nellies Cave area has evolved and persevered on its own. No one stands at a gate collecting an admission fee; no one has gussied up the place to give us a false sense of our predecessors.
We can only hope that steps will still be taken to correct these situations and that in the future, supervisors will balance all our rights, ensure that developers do not put the rest of us at risk, and see to it that we treat our resources with care.
by CNB