THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 16, 1994 TAG: 9407160280
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANCIE LATOUR, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
It is now virtually impossible for a homeowner with less than a quarter-acre lot to get a well permit in this parched city - and it's now much more difficult for those living on anything smaller than an acre to get one.
The Virginia Beach City Council on Friday declared a ``water emergency'' and imposed strict new well-permit guidelines to protect a dwindling groundwater supply.
New hookups to the municipal water system have been frozen since 1992, forcing many builders to turn to wells if they wanted to develop properties.
The council unanimously enacted the emergency water ordinance, banning wells on lots less than 10,000 square feet and requiring developers to provide scientific data on larger properties to prove the wells won't run dry.
The city's Public Utilities Department must approve the results of those studies before any digging can start.
The new restrictions do not apply to lots larger than an acre, or to shallow wells dug merely for watering lawns.
Before the council's action, drinking-water wells were approved on a case-by-case basis by the Health Department, with no minimum lot size required.
But city officials said they could no longer ignore the cumulative impact of tapping the groundwater supply.
``The purpose is to ensure that homeowners will not find themselves in a position two months or two years from now with wells going dry,'' said Clarence Warnstaff, director of Public Utilities. ``Because if the well runs dry, the city will not be in a position to supply water to them.''
A pipeline that would provide 60 million gallons of water a day to Hampton Roads is stalled in a federal approval process, and the city has been on mandatory water restrictions for the past two years as it fights for the Lake Gaston relief.
Warnstaff said his staff will be developing the criteria used to evaluate the studies.
He said he couldn't predict how much private firms will charge for the studies or how long the city's review process will take.
``It depends on the magnitude of the project,'' he said.
After the proposal has cleared Public Utilities, Warnstaff explained, developers or homeowners still must apply to the Health Department for a permit.
There, state-mandated requirements on pollution will not change, said Dan Horne, environmental health supervisor with the Virginia Health Department.
Horne, who supports the city's action, said he hopes that decreasing the density of wells will improve the quantity and quality of groundwater for Virginia Beach homeowners.
It is unclear how many lots will be squeezed out of consideration by the new limits, Horne said.
``The 10,000 square feet will be a limiting factor,'' he said, ``but it's not a large percent of the lots.''
The new restrictions could be critical to those in the business of building and selling new homes, said Terry Paine, vice president and regional manager of Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.
Not many homeowners can afford a lot bigger than 40,000 square feet, Payne said. Cutting off water supplies for the smaller lots could send an already ailing construction industry plummeting.
``As it is,'' he said, ``the percentage of new homes relative to overall sales has gone down dramatically just in the past year.
``Construction crews, plumbing crews - their livelihood is dependent on building and selling new houses.''
KEYWORDS: WATER CONSERVATION WATER SUPPLY PLAN VIRGINIA BEACH WATER
DEPARTMENT CONSTRUCTION WELLS by CNB