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48 <br /> State's application for renewal of the permit, the Orange County <br /> Department of Health determined that the system does not meet the <br /> state requirements for a permit, despite the fact it was permitted <br /> by DEN previously. Among other things, the Orange County officials <br /> determined that the system does not have sufficient capacity to <br /> serve all of the homes in the subdivision and does not have <br /> sufficient "repair area", or land to be used as nitrification <br /> fields if the existing fields fail. This means that the system can <br /> only serve the 34 homes that are already built at the subdivision, <br /> and none of the remaining 24 lots in the subdivision. Orange <br /> County also determined that the existing system did not meet all <br /> applicable regulations and required that certain improvements be <br /> made. on the basis of these findings, Orange County issued only a <br /> limited permit for the system, authorizing it to serve only the 34 <br /> existing homes in the subdivision, and also required that certain <br /> improvements be made to the existing system or even this limited <br /> permit would be revoked. <br /> 7. Because the Piney Mountain sewerage system has only a limited <br /> permit, the property owners who have not yet built homes on their <br /> lots cannot obtain a building permit to build a home on their lots. <br /> They will not be allowed to build until the Piney Mountain sewerage <br /> system is expanded to accommodate more users or another provision <br /> is made for sewage disposal. North State has said it has <br /> insufficient land in the subdivision to expand the system. In <br /> fact, North State has abandoned the system and gone out of <br /> business. The North Carolina Utilities Commission has named an <br /> emergency operator to operate the system until a new owner for the <br /> system can be found. The emergency operator has also stated that <br /> the system cannot be expanded to accommodate any homes yet to be <br /> built in the subdivision without adding land to the system. The <br /> Piney Mountain property owners are informed and believe that only <br /> some of the unimproved lots have soil of a good enough quality to <br /> permit the installation of a septic tank and owners of such lots <br /> cannot do this under the current restrictive covenants. The other <br /> owners of unimproved lots have lots with soils that will not <br /> accommodate septic tanks and there is no other alternative <br /> available to them for sewerage service. <br /> S. Because of inadequacies in the existing system, the current <br /> homeowners who are using the system will have to pay for repairs to <br /> the system required by Orange County. Furthermore, the current <br /> homeowners are informed and believe that some of the soil in the <br /> existing nitrification fields is not suitable for this use under <br /> the applicable state standards, and that as a result the fields may <br /> fail to adequately absorb the wastewater discharged by the system <br /> sooner than they would have if they had met the state requirements <br /> for this use. <br /> 9. The claimant and other property owners who are filing claims <br /> against DEN are informed and believe that the Piney Mountain <br /> sewerage system did not meet all applicable state laws and <br /> w1\0113174 \00822iS\12-1643 2 <br />