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Orange Water and Sewer Authority <br />Joint Public Hearing Comments <br />August 30, 1990 <br />Page 2 <br />1. If public water and sewer service are extended, who do the <br />Towns and County expect - or intend - to provide those <br />services? We would like to know at the outset if you want <br />OWASA to play a role in the Rural Buffer. <br />2. What exactly do we all mean by "public water and sewer <br />service "? The term usually refers to conventional <br />facilities extended from a centrally located and publicly <br />owned system that typically serves a municipality. But, a <br />number of other community, scale arrangements might also <br />qualify as "public water and sewer service" if operated and <br />maintained by a reliable public entity. <br />You're familiar with the examples: community well systems <br />for water supply; alternative wastewater collection systems, <br />such as small diameter sewers and pressure effluent systems; <br />and community treatment and disposal alternatives, such as <br />package plants, land application, and subsurface low <br />pressure disposal systems. <br />Utilities such as these might well serve clustered or Rural <br />Village developments if properly sited, designed, installed, <br />and operated by a reliable public entity. <br />We respectfully suggest that such a community scale concept <br />of "public water and sewer service" might also avoid the <br />growth management pitfalls and uncertainties often <br />attributed to conventional utility extensions into the Rural <br />Buffer. From a technical, economic, and legal standpoint, <br />It is probably more feasible to limit future service tap -ons <br />to a community scale utility than to the extension of a <br />central system. Let's think about it. <br />3. OWASA also notes the increasing number of existing Rural <br />Buffer subdivisions served by privately owned and operated <br />community scale utilities. We ask who will eventually <br />assume the responsibility for these systems when the <br />utilities become old or obsolete? OWASA recently denied a <br />request by the Stoneridge /Sedgefield Homeowners Association <br />to assume ownership of a community water system in the <br />Whitfield Road area. <br />If the Towns or County expect - or intend - a future OWASA <br />role in Rural Buffer areas now served in part by private <br />