THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701110508
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAPE CHARLES LENGTH: 74 lines
Virginia Beach developer Dickie Foster won't buy land around Cape Charles unless it comes with a groundwater withdrawal permit.
And a permit to pump large amounts of water in lower Northampton County might be hard to get, even if the wells are moved away from the coastline.
``In my mind, without knowing how much water they want, anywhere they want to withdraw will be a problem,'' said Terry Wagner, groundwater program manager for the Department of Environmental Quality.
Foster, who owns Baymark Construction, has an option to buy about 1,900 acres surrounding Cape Charles. He is designing a 36-hole, bay- and creek-front golf course on 500 acres south of town, and hopes to build vacation or retirement homes on the rest of the land.
But a Texas company, Brown & Root, owners of the property, never established a right to pump water there.
``Without groundwater, they don't have anything,'' said Foster.
Brown & Root had a conditional permit to withdraw 1.1 million gallons of water per day. But before the company could pump, it needed to provide DEQ with a computer model proving that the withdrawal would not harm the drinking-water aquifers.
Wagner said his office received Brown & Root's model two days before the conditional permit was to expire in 1995 - nearly a year after the wells should have been in operation to establish a history of use as required by law. DEQ hasn't evaluated Brown & Root's submission.
``Why waste staff time to look at that report?'' Wagner said. He said the application process has to start again.
To get a permit, Brown & Root must first estimate how much water it wants to pump.
``We've been led to believe that it will be lower than the 1.1 million gallons a day previously requested,'' said Wagner.
Next, Brown & Root will have to provide DEQ with another groundwater flow model, probably a modification of the one submitted earlier.
For DEQ to issue a permit, the model must show that a proposed withdrawal will not cause salt-water intrusion or an unacceptable level of drawdown in the fresh-water aquifer.
The southern tip of the Eastern Shore is a very poor place to pump groundwater; it is a narrow land mass, subject to salt-water intrusion from all three sides, Wagner said. With enough pumping, undrinkable water can also come up into the fresh-water aquifers from the salty aquifers beneath them.
The situation in Cape Charles is complicated by an ancient riverbed, called a paleochannel, on the floor of the Chesapeake Bay just off the town's shoreline. A prehistoric river cut through clay layers that contain and protect the region's fresh-water aquifers. Massive pumping could cause salt water from the Bay to be sucked directly into the region's only drinking-water resource.
``It increases our level of concern on the application,'' Wagner said.
Moving the wells to a site closer to the center of the peninsula would minimize the negative effects of a large withdrawal, he said. But the DEQ doesn't have the authority to choose a well site for property owners.
If Brown & Root asks for too much water, even moving the wells may not help, Wagner said.
To get a permit, Brown & Root will also need to submit a water conservation and management plan, and possibly a plan to mitigate any problems the water withdrawal creates. It takes the DEQ four to six months to process a completed application - maybe longer.
Brown & Root hasn't submitted a new application yet.
Meanwhile, Foster's clock is ticking. He has allowed a six-month period to study the property, its zoning and various permits. Then he'll decide if he will actually buy the land.
``We're anticipating this to be a big deal,'' Wagner said about upcoming permitting process. ``We expect a lot of interest in this application.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Map
Area Shown: Cape Charles
KEYWORDS: BROWN AND ROOT EASTERN SHORE WATER PERMIT