Queens Lake Sewer Project
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Phase II and III Meeting, August 08/04/10, Page 1
Phase II and III Meeting, August 08/04/10, Page 2
SEWER PROJECT OVERVIEW - APRIL 2010
-Ed Partridge, Chairman Community Affairs Committee
Of the 523 homes in Queens Lake, most are older than the usual projected life of septic systems, and by the spring of 2009, when construction of the new Sewer System for Queens Lake began, many homes had experienced radical failures of their septic systems. Some homeowners, of course, had experienced no such failures, but the Colonial Soil and Water Conservation District of which we are a part, acting in accord with the Federal Clean Water Act’s mandate to rectify certain pollution sources inimical to the Chesapeake Bay, decreed that old and/or deteriorating septic systems would be subject to regulations pertinent to their maintenance, and, where justified by age or deterioration, would be replaced in whole neighborhoods with code compliant sewerage removal systems. This mandate, and the Federal money to defray the cost of construction, made possible the new Sewer System now under construction in Queens Lake.
The project, divided into five phases, is shown on the accompanying Construction Phasing Plan. Construction was to have begun in the spring of 2008 with completion set for the spring of 2013. Actually, construction began in the spring of 2009 in Phase I and is now estimated to conclude throughout Queens Lake in about 2015. Road paving of Phase I is currently scheduled to begin in June 2010. Homeowners in the Phase I area are expected to connect their homes to the sewers in the summer or fall of 2011, at which time the Main Pumping Station (near Lakeshead Drive) will be completed.
When homeowners are directed to connect , or "tie in" with the sewers, they must do so within ninety days. The first step will be for each homeowner to secure a Sewer Connection Permit from York County. The fee for this is $3,300, which may be paid in twelve equal, bimonthly (every other month) payments with a finance charge of 10%. After the ninety day Connection Period, the fee for a permit to connect will be $8,624 (subject to increases in the future). Upon receipt of their "tie-in" permits, homeowners will then contract with a licensed plumbing company for their septic tanks to be pumped out, filled with sand and deactivated. They will have the connection made from the house to the "clean out stack" at their property line, assuming the cost of trenching and pipe laying. These days, the cost for trenching and pipe laying for sewers runs about $20 per foot. The cost of closing out the septic tank is in the range of $500 to $1000 dollars. A homeowner whose house requires a “grinder pump” will be exempted from the trenching and pipe laying costs to compensate them for the cost of electricity to operate the pump. It should be noted that the deactivation of all septic systems is mandated. Septic tanks may not be converted to any other use.
Additionally, homeowners will have the following charges: $37.50 bimonthly (every other month) to York County and $30.00 (estimate) bimonthly (every other month) to Hampton Roads Sanitation District. Treatment charges will actually vary with the amount of water a customer uses, or upon the number of commodes in the home for private well users. Owners of vacant lots (non-users of the sewer system) will be subject to a bimonthly fee to York County of $24.38 per lot. Homeowners who have lawn and garden irrigation systems must have Exclusion Meters installed on their systems by the main supply valve, and by reporting their monthly water consumption for irrigation purposes, have this amount deducted from their bimonthly charge from the Hampton Roads Sanitation District. This deduction is allowed for water that does not go through the sewer system.
| Phase I, Bowstring, Fall 2009: |
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| Phase I, Little John, Spring 2010: |
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