The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is constructing a 7,500-foot water line along Grit Road to provide clean water for more than 30 residents whose wells were contaminated with gasoline.
County officials hope to add another 2,500 feet of pipeline to benefit up to 40 more residents farther down the road. Those citizens have a limited supply of water in their wells, said Staunton River Supervisor Marshall Ecker, whose district includes Grit Road, or Route 668. Grit Road is located in northeastern Pittsylvania County off Ricky Van Shelton Road.
“This would help alleviate that problem for those people,” Ecker, who led the push for the extension, said.
Almost 30 property owners in that area signed a petition in favor of the waterline extension.
The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted during their regular meeting Tuesday night to seek a change order on the project, preliminary engineering for the extension and an OK from the Virginia Health Department. According to a county estimate, the addition would cost about $116,000, including engineering, Ecker said.
Sarah Guill, who has lived along Grit Road for 21 years, signed the petition because she would like to use the waterline for drinking water and continue using the water in her well for other purposes, such as washing her car and watering flowers.
The DEQ is paying for the 7,500-foot part of the line to deliver to those affected by the gas pollution, whereas the county would pay for the proposed extension.
Gasoline contamination was reported in residential wells along Grit Road several years ago. The pollution resulted from old, leaky underground tanks that held gasoline for an old gas station, Ecker said. The DEQ installed monitoring systems in the wells and water filters in homes affected by the contamination. Affected residents also bought bottled water to avoid consuming water from contaminated wells, Ecker said.
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