Water Sources in Land Development
Potable water in land development:
It is clear that any land development project is going nowhere without a domestic water source. The source must be potable, which simply means a water source that is safe for human consumption. There are three ways I know of to get water for a household.
Public or private water system
Community or private well
Rainwater to a cistern
We’ll remove a cistern from consideration since collecting rainwater in a holding tank for household use is not practical (or allowable to my knowledge) for a project. Let’s look at the ins and outs of the options that can work, if done correctly.
Public or private water mains:
Existing utility company water mains are an obvious option and they can be public or privately owned. The nice part about this option is that you have a predictable source for quantity and a monitored source for quality, plus the system is managed by the utility itself.
Here’s the downsides:
Cost - running water lines to and through a project is very expensive. The utility will require a certain sized line to tie into their main leading into the project. Once inside it may be possible to downsize the line, but not always. The “not always” part is that the utility will be taking into consideration future development past my project and they will want line capacity for them as well. That means that even though you may only need a 4” line to serve your project, you may have to run an 8” line through it. The cost difference could be huge!
Capacity - There may be a mainline near your project that looks great at first glance. It’s another thing to find out that the capacity of the water system is maxed out, so no additional water service to your project is available. Preventing this disaster requires the developer to secure a formal letter of water availability from the provider for the hookups and volume requested.
Line push through - One large public utility district I worked with required that a 8” line extension be constructed from boundary line to boundary line of my project. This resulted in having to run the main line past the last lots to the south, all the way to the southern boundary line of my project. That was about 400 yards further than my last lot and around an environmentally sensitive area. I forget the extra cost but it was substantial.
Hook up fees can also be a consideration at the homeowner level but this is typically not a concern to the pure land developer since it’s primarily a new home construction permitting issue. At the same time, any and all developer fees and costs required to tie into an existing water system should be thoroughly investigated.
Wells as a water source:
Getting water from a well is a time tested method as long as you can find enough water and the water can pass quality testing. Regulation of ground water is an entirely different matter since just because you can find enough good water does not mean that you can actually use it. This is because water is a public resource first and foremost, with private interests being a secondary concern.
Water rights:
My post “Understanding Water Rights” gives an overview of the complexities of acquiring water rights. Link to: https://www.landdevelopmentrealities.com/home/2019/1/20/water-rights for the review. One key point is that water rights are typically not easy to come by and it is not unusual for a 5 year or longer wait in my home state to have an application reviewed and ruled on. There are many governmental and quasi governmental interests in water, which across the board is considered to be of significant public interest. In short, do not assume water rights are in any way easy or fast to get. I’ve made several applications in my home state for water rights and was denied on every single one of them!
Well water - private group water system:
I was president of a private water company in a rural county a while back. It was only a small fraction of what I was doing in land development, but it was very instructive. This was a small system of 6 water hook ups that had prior approval from the state for domestic water use from the onsite well. This system was called a “six pack” which was a simplified version of a water system known as a Group B system. This system required scheduled maintenance of the well, routine testing for water quality (both bacteriological and inorganic solutes) and scheduled flushing of the two holding tanks and system lines. It was worth it for me economically since water without inorganic problems was tough to get in the area, but it was a pain to manage. As soon as I sold the lots and water hookups I turned the system over to the owners and was happy to be gone.
Individual well - single use:
Some states, including mine, allow for a single residential well to be drilled and used without a water right. This is for a single home domestic use only and the maximum that can be drawn from the well is 1,500 gallons per day in my state. The purpose of this allowance is for the non-developer to be allowed to secure domestic water without the hassle of obtaining a water right. Commercial use is not allowable, even when the home is on site.
There have been some newbie developers that thought they would get around water right hassles by simply drilling individual wells for each of their lots under development. My state anticipated this and strictly legislated that multiple individual wells under the same ownership are a violation. I wouldn’t want to be the guy caught trying this and it is critical to know the applicable laws regarding individual wells.
Water testing:
There are two main test panels in water testing - organic and inorganic. Organic testing will show select microorganisms present in the water and at what levels. Inorganic panels will show non-living elements present and at what levels. One common example of a serious problem in my home state is arsenic, which at even moderate levels has been shown to cause a variety of very serious health problems in humans. Arsenic above allowable levels can easily kill any chance of using the well for domestic use.
The testing panels will show what organic and inorganic solutes are present and at what levels. There is also a scale that shows whether the amounts present are below, at, or above allowable levels. Water treatment can handle some of the problems identified in testing but the developer needs to be aware of the treatment required along with the frequency required. Filtration is also possible in dealing with excessive inorganic problems, but this can be costly and can also cause problems in marketing when legal disclosure requires that potential buyers be informed of the extra cost.
How do I get a handle on this?
If you link to the Understanding Water Rights post you’ll see a reference to Chuck, my water rights attorney. I was lucky to find Chuck since navigating the laws in my state regarding water use required his expertise. The two best ways I know of to stay out of water problems are to have a known and approved domestic and potable water source, with water availability letter, prior to acquisition. The second way is to act under the guidance of a qualified water rights attorney for anything to do with wells as the water source. That, along with following every law and ordinance relating to water use within the project, since control of water use spans across international, federal, state, county and local jurisdictions.
