- Small county subdivisions must meet high quality water system requirements
|
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The small subdivisions Juab County has allowed in the past need to be stopped from happening in the future.
In other words, the county needs to make certain that the small subdivision, those with fewer than 15 homes or less than 25 people, plan for high quality water systems so that, in the future, the subdivisions can be plugged into municipal systems that do meet the state standards.
Several of the big guns over water and utilities in Utah attended Juab County Commission meeting on Monday to discuss the problems the county is encountering with less than adequate systems which have already been allowed.
Present were: Roger Foisy, Department of Environmental Quality District Engineer; Shauna Springer, Utility Analyst II with the Division of Public Utilities; Bill Duncan, Manager of Telecommunications-Water for the Division of Public Utilities; Ying-Ying Macauley, Engineering Section Manager for the Utah Division of Drinking Water; Brad Johnson, Director of the Utah Division of Environmental Response and Remediation; Kenneth H. Bousfield, P.E., Division Director for the State of Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
“When there are 15 service connections or 25 people serviced by a system, it becomes a public system,” said Foisy. “To get under that radar screen of the Utah Division of Drinking Water, developers have been building small subdivisions with six or seven homes.”
One case in point is a 40-lot subdivision south of Mona, said Foisy. The division has now received complaints from home owners about the system being inadequate to meet the needs of the consumers.
“Now that the homes are built it is too late and who is going to pick up the systems and make certain they meet the standards of the state—a city, the county?” he asked.
Val Jones, county commission chairman, said he understood that the systems would come under the jurisdiction of homeowner’s associations.
However, that does not always help, said Bousfield. The question is whether there are sufficient funds in such an organization to pay for the expensive upgrades needed.
He said that one complaint the division has received is about a home in one of the small subdivisions near Mona where there is never sufficient pressure. One recent event alarmed the home owner. In that event, the well sucked the water back from the home into the well which is a cause for possible contamination and, in addition, may damage the home’s delivery system.
“One key issue is that there needs to be engineering reviews,” said Bousfield. “Even though such systems fall below our floor there needs to be cooperation and there needs to be engineering review.”
Eventually, he said, there will be enough complaints that the county will form a district and there will need to be infrastructure systems constructed. Those systems are better built before the subdivision than after.
One way to assure good systems is for the county to write an ordinance that would spell out and demand systems that provide adequate infrastructure for the future.
“If there are seven homes or below,” said Bousfield, “we will be willing to provide the county with engineering assistance for those below the floor systems.”
That will assure the viability of the system and will help the county to make certain all systems are sound from an engineering standpoint.
Eventually, the poorly designed systems end up in needing to upgrade and they apply to the state for a grant. The state, however, prefers to give low-interest loans because, eventually, the money is returned to the state to be used for another project.
“When the checkerboard is formed, all elements should be planned so that, eventually, they will fit together even though the checkerboard has been built one square at a time,” said Bousfield.
The developer doesn’t pay for the utility development, the user does. It is planned by the developer that all such systems are passed on to the homeowner.
There is a way the state can help, however, he said.
Macauley said that instead of having seven shallow wells for seven small, six to seven home subdivisions, there should be one large well. That should be a requirement because the deeper well provides a safer source for homeowners.
In addition, there should be some sort of storage tank required so that water can be saved up for fire suppression and to prevent the same type of problem which occurred in the forenamed home.
“The devil is in the details,” she said. “The state does have storage requirements.”
Currently the division of drinking water and the division of public utilities are working on an agreement which would make it possible for the two divisions to work to help counties.
“Each division will act as a support,” said Bousfield. “We can use the authority of the public utilities.”
The regulatory authority of public utilities already existing covers water and sewer corporations providing service to consumers; excluding municipalities which provide water and sewer service, special improvement districts, and mutual water companies which are exempt from commission regulation.
The Utah Division of Drinking Water has the responsibility to protect the public against waterborne health risks through education, assistance, and oversight. Rules have been adopted regarding the protection of public drinking water sources.
|
