The James City County Policy committee met Thursday to discuss proposed ordinance amendments to address the protection of public water supplies.
During a meeting in May 2018, the Board of Supervisors broached the topic of county regulations to protect public drinking water and areas of public health, according to documents from the county. Following that meeting in November 2018, the board asked the Planning Commission to develop regulations addressing water quality in the special regulations section of the zoning ordinance.
While James City County code does not currently address its water supply reservoirs, Diascund and Little Creek, there are a combination of regulations, land ownership and topography has created watershed runoff protection.
“There are certain areas for improvement,” said Thomas Wysong, senior planner for the county. “What we are thinking is special regulations within the zoning ordinance. You can look at reservoirs and put in performance standards and if there are uses that might cause problems…then there are regulations to protect it.”
A reservoir, as defined in the proposed ordinance, is a surface of water that provides drinking water to the public.
The topic of protecting county drinking water has been brought up multiple times since the 1980s.
During the meeting on Thursday, a brief history of water protection within the county was discussed, describing first the Reservoir Protection Overlay District, which was adopted in 1983 in preparation for the Ware Creek Reservoir.
However, the Ware Creek Reservoir was eventually abandoned after the Environmental Protection Agency found the reservoir would cause too significant of an environmental impact.
Following that in 1996, the county and the City of Newport News formed a partnership for a proposed reservoir in King William County. While the development of the reservoir continued through 2001, the project was ultimately abandoned in 2009.
Now, the topic is coming up again as maintaining a sustainable long-term water supply has become part of the James City County strategic plan for 2035.
To better plan how to implement the ordinance, members from the planning department have been looking at nearby localities who already have water protection ordinances.
“I think as we are developing ordinances it is a very typical process to look at other localities,” said Ellen Cook, principal planner. “Especially more so for this one, where the reservoirs are owned and operated by Newport News waterworks.”
The City of Newport News owns the reservoirs but they are maintained in partnership with James City County and the Division of Game and Inland Fisheries, according to the county’s website.
In developing the ordinance, the planning department compared York County’s and Newport News’ water supply ordinances and considered how they could be applied to James City County.
One example is that both localities prohibit the use of hazardous materials within the reservoir, and James City County’s ordinance might do the same.
But county planners have to consider existing requirements, such as the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance, which designates the entire county as a preservation area.
“I think something that we are careful to do is make sure the improved regulations don’t contradict with what already exists,” Wysong said.
Cook said the department is just in the first stage of planning and does not have a set date for when changes to the ordinance will be presented to the committee again.
