nieghbors septic system placement

[RayH]

The deal is we have new neighbors building across the road from us. This is a subdivision of 1 acre+ lots, well water and leach field septic systems. Ive met the people that are building. They seem to be nice folks. They have a contractor handling everything for them.

Their house is finished, their well is drilled and they just started the septic the other day. I law here is that no potable well can be within 100' of a septic field. I know this from when I built. I had to measure from all septic fields and wells around me to place my septic and well accordingly.
The problem is that they seem to be placing their septic field within 100' of my well. I havent put a tape on it because workers were there and I didnt want to be too obvious and cause issues where there may not be any. I did pace it off and it seems to be about 90'. I dont really think 10' is enough to be concerned about poiconing our well so I dont want to overreact, but Im concerned that it is enough that if we ever sold the house and someone caught it, our well would be shutdown so I feel I need to do something about it. My options are to call the building inspector and have them check it out or go over myself and talk with them. Either way, I feel that it needs to be corrected. The next chance I get Im going to try to get a better measurement.
I dont know if Im asking for some advice or just venting. Maybe someone who has dealt with this kind of issue can offer some wisdom. For all I know, the law may have changed in the last 9 years.

 

[HomeBrew2]

The jurisdiction may now require a septic system that emits irrigation quality effluent. My brother is just starting building a property of 1/2 ac with community water. He met with the County and a contractor and that is the only type of system allowed there. Not cheap but really clean effluent.

 

[rdln]

The 100ft rule is still current where i am at.

 

[RonMar]

I would go talk with them about it right away before the contractor gets too far into the process. I don't know about where you live, but around here all septic plans need to be approved and distance to wells need to be part of that. The approving official and the company/contractor who drew up the plan for submission should have taken a surrounding neighbor's well into consideration when making/approving the plan.

 

[shvl73]

Why not speak to the building inspector first, just to be sure of the regulations? You shouldn't need to disclose the location so you'll have the chance to see if there really is a problem.

 

[CharlieTR]

I kinda know the feeling, new land owner wants to build lake uphill from me.
I advised you better learn the rules and permits and corp rules before you start. He said @#$%@%@% with that, so I am keeping an eye out. (will make new post about some questions I have on this.)

I think I would mention it to him that its 90 feet away. Better for him to hear it from you rather than the inspector after completion. In my county (TX) only one permit required (outside city limits) and that is septic. Now-a-daze you gotta have aerobic systems for a house (inspected 3x per year and filed with county), mobile homes can have leach fields.

 

[8561]

I have a slightly different take on this. If your well is placed such that your neighbor can't place his septic system, you may have to move your well. He has a right to place his septic within the confines of his property. When I built my first house about 10 years ago, I wanted to site my well near the left edge of my property, maybe 60 or 70' from the property line. The next door property was already built and the septic sited before I did my well and did not conflict with my proposed well site. However, I had to sign a septic right of way (forget what it was actually called) that stated very clearly that if the neighbor wanted to re-site his leach bed, that I would be required to move my well location and re-pound a new well. This document was, and still is, filed with the County Registry of Deeds, and is attached to that property location forever.

I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing the theory behind the law is that since the footprint of a leach bed is so large, and may need to be moved from time to time due to failure, that the interest of the leach field supercedes the interest of the well, with such a small footprint. Your well probably shouldn't have been sited so close to your property line. I guess my point of all this is to be careful what you wish for if you go running to the building inspector. Having said all that, this should have been discovered through the septic design process, and will likely be found during inspection.

 

[RayH]

the guy was digging the septic as I was leaving for work so I took a minute to have a talk with him. He told me that the law is still 100ft but he wasnt made aware of any wells within that distance. I walked him over to see mine and my next door neighbor's well. He measured and both our wells are within 100ft of his leach lines. He put a stop to the digging until he can figure out what to do.
Im not concerned about having to move my well because there isnt really anyplace else to move it besides where its at. My neighbor on the left has his septic up towards the road and my neighbor on the right has his septic in the back. I put my septic in the back so the front right corner is the only place left for my well. My well is about 40ft from my neighbor on the right and both our wells are about 80ft from the proposed septic across the road. We will see what happens now. I hate to start trouble with new neighbors, its just not the right way to welcome them but I cant let the septic happen as it is now. My next door neighbor is involved now also but I havent talked to him about it yet. Anyway, for the moment, digging has stopped.

 

[dubba]

I wanted to site my well near the left edge of my property, maybe 60 or 70' from the property line. The next door property was already built and the septic sited before I did my well

My take is that your neighbor was there first. You couldn't force him to move his state approved septic for your well. Also you infringed upon his right to locate his septic within 100 ft of his property line, therefore you signed a waiver. My guess is he would have to sign a waiver to move his leach field closer than 100 ft of the property line because that would infringe on your rights...

 

[WVBill]

Ray,

When the builder pulled the permit for building my house in Summit Point WV (Jefferson County) he had to provide a site plan locating the well, leach field and an alternate leach field. He was building on several adjacent lots and had to "de-conflict" all of these. Luckily they're all 3+ acre lots so there was lots of room. Since all of these are now recorded, I would suspect that the County site-plan approval process for any new adjoining lots would verify that there was no conflict with surrounding - already permitted site plans.

But then since you guys over there in Berkley County still don't have Zoning ordnances, things may be different... ;-)

The good news is that when you told your new neighbor, he didn't blow you off so at least you know he's conscientious.

WVBill