Big Sandy Soil, Water Maintains Control
County Seeks Authority over Erosion, Sediment Program

by Scotty Wampler
Staff Reporter

       The Big Sandy Soil and Water District will maintain control of Buchanan County’s Erosion and Sediment Control Program for the time being.
      During the past several weeks, the Department of Conservation and Recreation had received several indications that some confusion existed regarding the roles and responsibilities within Buchanan County’s program, Neal Kilgore, the department’s regional manager, confirmed in a press release.
        The department’s Carlton Lee Hill also confirmed Thursday that revisions to Big Sandy’s program were approved by the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation
Board.
         “The board commends the district for updating the program to be consistent with the Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control law and regulations,” Hill said in a
press release.
         However, Buchanan County Administrator W.J. Caudill confirmed Monday that the process of acquiring control of the program by the county is already underway.
        “We’ve got an application put in to return control to Buchanan County,” he said.
         The application, he said, was submitted to DCR some time ago. A DCR spokesperson could not be reached to comment on the status of the application by press time.
         The Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control Law, established in 1973, requires that each soil and water conservation district in Virginia adopt an erosion and sediment control program.
         Each county, city or town in Virginia has the option to adopt and administer an ESC program, provided it be consistent with the state program and that the program be approved by the board.
        However, Buchanan County, Kilgore wrote, chose not to present a consistent program for approval by the board, leaving the conservation district to adopt and administer a program for the county.
         “For many years, the program remained with Lonesome Pine SWCD,” Kilgore wrote, “but when the new Big Sandy SWCD was formed, that responsibility was automatically transferred to it.”
          According to Kilgore, the department recently provided information to David Hensley, of the Buchanan County Mapping and Engineering department, which may assist in the development of a county program.
          “Unless a ‘consistent’ county program is developed and approved by the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board, the responsibility for program administration, plan review, inspection and enforcement will have to remain with the Big Sandy SWCD,” Kilgore wrote.
          It is required that any local plan-approving authority report land-disturbing activities to the department on a monthly basis. According to Kilgore, the report should contain detailed information, including the project title, address, name and address of the owner/applicant and a calculation of the total disturbed acreage.
          “We will be happy to work with and provide assistance to any entity that retains program responsibility,” Kilgore wrote. “Our objective is to assist local government entities with achieving and maintaining consistent local programs, regardless of who administers the program.”

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Pipe Ready to Be Laid on Kennel Gap Well Project

       Pipe leading from the Kennel Gap well to the proposed location of a filtration plant to serve that well will be laid in the coming weeks as the Buchanan County Public Service Authority works to develop the supplemental water source.
       PSA Director Darrell Cantrell said some 9,900 linear feet of eight-inch ductile iron pipe will be laid from the well to the filtration plant location.
        Pacer Construction is the contractor on the job.
        Design on the plant is about 90 percent complete and Cantrell said the PSA is awaiting health department approval on the actual plant facility.
        Remaining parts of the well application related to construction of the line have already been approved by the health department, Cantrell said.
        Assuming all goes as planned, he added, the well could be in operation by the end of 2006.
        "We’re getting ready to move the trenchers in to lay the pipe," Cantrell said.
       An area in front of the Keen Mountain Correctional Center is one of the areas along which pipe will be laid.
       Planning for the filtration plant calls for some 500,000 gallons of water per day to be produced from the Kennel Gap well.
       Buchanan County began development of the well after testing water quality and quantity to determine whether the well could serve as a supplemental or back-up source of water to serve county residents on the public water system.
        Testing showed the water in the well met both criteria and planning began to develop the well.
        At year’s end, the project was one of several in the Cumberland Plateau Planning District to be targeted through a state grant for funding. The overall grant was some $1.6 million to CPPD
       The monies were appropriated by the General Assembly in 2005 to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development with the specific intent of connecting more citizens in the region to safer and more reliable public water systems.


For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.
 

Contributions Approved for School Event, Cub Scouts

        Contributions totaling $3,300 were approved in January by the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors.
         The contributions were unanimously agreed to by the board.
        The contributions approved, the amounts approved, who made the request and which supervisors authorized them were as follows:
        • $2,800: Special Education Field Day, to be used for the annual special education field day event held for eligible students countywide. The contribution was requested by Robert Lester, Diane Vance, Beth Justus, Deborah Owens and Mary Salyers and was approved at $500 each by North Grundy Supervisor Joe Keene; Rocklick Supervisor David Ratliff; Garden Supervisor Buddy Fuller; Prater Supervisor Eddie Lindsay; and South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife. Knox Supervisor Pat Justus agreed to give $300. Hurricane Supervisor William P. Harris did not sign the request to give any amount.
        • $500:A Cub Scout Pack 756, to be used for registration fees; a field trip to Bays Mountain for 10 scouts and five adults; t-shirts for 10 scouts and five adults; Pinewood Derby car kits; and Rain Gutter Regatta boat kits, requested by Billie Lee Horne Jr. and authorized by Fuller