VWWA Position Statement

Adopted February 27, 1999

Position 4: Unfair Competition

The Virginia Water Well Association supports elimination of laws and regulations that require mandatory hook-up to public water systems on the basis that these laws and regulations create unfair competition in the business of providing potable water for the public.

Rationale

Potable water is a marketed product that can be obtained from a number of competing providers, including well drillers, governments, quasi-governments (such as water authorities) and privately owned utility companies. Of these providers, only well drillers experience the negative economic impact of federal, state and local laws that require private well users to hook on to public systems when such systems are built. Additionally, only well drillers experience negative economic impact when laws or regulations are adopted that require builders or developers to put in public water infrastructure rather than choose to construct private wells as a water source. Only well drillers experience negative economic impact when laws and ordinances are passed that forbid the drilling and use of wells for non-potable uses such as irrigation systems and heat pumps.

Finally, and perhaps most unfairly, state and local governments, water authorities and utilities often receive public funds to build their systems. Often, access to these funds is based on a government mandate that well users hook on to the public system. Only well drillers experience having their customers ordered, by law, to give up their private source of water and hook on to public water systems.

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