April, 20, 2024 | Keith Shearon
A letter by Jaycee Georgiev on behalf of Keep Granville Green (KGG), a local home-owner protection group, to Senator Mary Bode Wills, Representatives Matthew Winslow and Frank Sossaman, and Granville County Commissioner Russ May requested cooperation from the four on regulations to untangle water conflicts in Granville and surrounding counties.
KGG wants Wake, Granville and Franklin county planners and health departments (DHHS) leaders to sit at the table with North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) officials and set in place protections for homeowners.
Referencing current government ordinances and checklists, Georgiev said the problem remains that the State DEQ is issuing development permits for large well drilling operations before counties have permitted the land for building. Wells are being drilled before building is even approved.
Georgiev said large developers are drilling state-approved multiple wells at one location, all for one new subdivision. The county planning and zoning office has said this is happening often before Granville County officials are even aware there is a subdivision being considered.
KGG is urging lawmakers to change regulations to require DEQ to inform County zoning and health offices before issuing well-drilling permits, saying it is extremely important that the county manage proper setbacks between local homeowner wells and the wells for new communities.
The second issue Georgiev raised in her letter to lawmakers concerned the disclosure by Granville (or other) County websites of the locations of all wells and proposed wells within a county. The purpose of such disclosure being to help the public visualize the magnitude of the well location conflict problems and identify potential new conflicts before they arise.
The Granville POST has asked local officials and county residents in the past about placing water level monitoring devices in dozens of locations throughout the county to facilitate long term water table level studies for the benefit of residents throughout the whole county. But residents who might have or develop low water levels don’t want their wells monitored, and the county doesn’t want to bear the cost of drilling non-producing wells just for the purpose of monitoring the water table.