Extending Water & Sewer to Property

If an existing home or community of homes wish to connect to public water and sewer, Hanover County has a program for doing so.

Program to Serve Single Home Property

A property owner can extend the public water and/or sewer system at their expense to property located in the Suburban Services Area.  Below is an outline of the process. The homeowner is responsible for:

  1. Contact Public Utilities to determine service availability and infrastructure location
  2. Discuss requirements for connection
  3. Retain an Engineer to design the necessary improvements
  4. Obtain necessary easements
  5. Submit construction plans for review and obtain approvals
  6. Obtain necessary environmental permits
  7. Retain a contractor
  8. Obtain construction permits
  9. Construct the improvements
  10. Obtain approval of the constructed improvements
  11. Pay required fees, obtain a plumbing permit and connect to the public system

Program to Serve Existing Communities in the Suburban Service Area not Currently on Public Utilities

Hanover has the following program to assist existing communities on private well and septic systems connect to the public water and/or sewer system The community is responsible for the following items:

  1. Discuss within community and share handout
  2. Petition the community to determine if there is interest in extending water and sewer to it.
  3. If 80% of the community is interested in moving forward, select a community liaison to work with the Department of Public Utilities
  4. Hold community meetings to discuss the project, anticipated costs and how Service Districts work
  5. Community liaison circulates survey with requirement that at least 80% of the property owners support moving forward
  6. Board holds public hearing on creating a Service District to finance the improvements
  7. Hanover moves forward with obtaining funding, design and construction
  8. Service District assessments appear on property tax bill
  9. Once improvements are in service, Property owners pay a capacity fee and hire plumber to connect to system when desired
  10. Financial Expectations and Easements
    1. Each property owner is expected to pay their share of the construction costs, whether they connect or not, should the project move forward. Each property owner should expect their share of the cost to retrofit the community to be estimated at $35,000 to $45,000 for sewer and $20,000 to $30,000 for water assuming the neighborhood is close to the existing system(s)
    2. With the support of the Community, the County will create a Service District and property owners will have a special assessment added to their bi-annual property tax bill to pay for the improvements over a period of up to 20 years
    3. In addition to the cost of retrofitting the community, each property that connects will also pay the applicable capacity fee and will need to hire a plumber to connect to the new water and/or sewer system
    4. Property owners are expected to donate easements required for the improvements

Contact Public Utilities for more information