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10/22/2009
By Lisa Loomis
Waitsfield has asked the Vermont District 5 Environmental Commission to close the record on the town's Act 250 permit application for a municipal water project.
In so doing, the town is notifying Act 250 that it is prepared to meet the burden of proof on the remaining state permit needed for the project.
Waitsfield is in the permitting process of a municipal water project. Act 250 hearings for the project concluded last summer. Still pending is a Vermont Agency of Natural Resources water supply permit to construct.
WATER SOURCE PERMIT
The town has already received its water source permit from the ANR as well as its wetlands conditional use determination and its stormwater construction permit. One of the permits, the water source permit, had been appealed in Vermont Superior Court by Virginia Houston whose land abuts the town's wells. That appeal was resolved and the appeal period expired in August without Houston filing an appeal.
Her appeal hinged on the town taking a wellhead protection easement on .42 of an acre of land within Houston's own wellhead protection zone. Houston and the town have drilled wells into an aquifer off the Reed Road in Waitsfield. Waitsfield drilled its well in the town road right of way. Houston appealed the town's taking of the easement.
BURDEN OF PROOF
Town Administrator Valerie Capels said that it came to the town's attention recently that Act 250's District 5 Environmental Commission was waiting for the issuance of all state permits and that the town's Act 250 application had not been clear on what permits were already issued. Accordingly, project engineer John Kiernan, in an October 20 letter, asked Act 250 to close the record and stipulated that the town would meet the burden of proof on the final permit.
That final permit, the water supply permit to construct, hinges on rights of way that are still being worked out.
Construction of the $7.6 million project is slated to begin next spring. It is being funded by $4.5 million in federal grants, connection fees and a $3.014 million loan. The project will provide municipal water for Waitsfield Village, Irasville, the Old County Road, portions of Tremblay Road and other areas in town.
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