Sewer availability

The Virginia Code and regulations read for this entry give no statewide definition of sewer availability, and no state test to look up.

What the Code does is hand the question to localities. Va. Code 15.2-2121 lets a locality with subdivision and land development regulations fix how water and sewer mains and connections must be installed as a condition of approving an original subdivision plat, and it lets those regulations include requirements to extend and connect to abutting or adjacent public water or sewer systems.

So whether sewer is available depends on which ordinance governs the land and which utility runs the line. On a listing sheet the phrase is a claim to check, and what it does and does not promise a buyer is set out in what public water and sewer available means.

Because each locality writes its own test, the parcel-level answer never comes from a map or a listing. It comes from three desks.

• The Public Service Authority or city utility: whether a main runs near the parcel, whether the utility will serve it, and on what extension terms. In Carroll County that is the Public Service Authority at 276-730-3170.
• The county's subdivision agent: whether the ordinance deems the land served, requires a connection, or ties a smaller lot size to one.
• The local health department: for any lot that will not connect, the onsite sewage permit, which is VDH's to issue through that office rather than the county's.

The water half of the listing phrase has its own statutory threshold, set out under public water. Where no sewer is available at all, whether land can still be developed is argued in developing land with no public sewer.