Botetourt County and a private water company are at odds over future service areas in the growing locality, so much so that the county wants the State Corporation Commission to revoke the company's expansion rights.

The county alleges that Central Water Co. of Roanoke "deceived" the SCC so it could expand into fast-growing areas along U.S. 220 going north toward Fincastle.

The county's move would counter Central Water's potential ability to gain exclusive water rights along the U.S. 220 corridor, usurping the county's control over future residential and commercial development in the fastest-growing part of the county.

"The county has a master plan for the future," County Administrator Jerry Burgess said. "Provision of water, wastewater, road improvements, all those things enable elected officials to plan and manage growth. That is why any huge change away from that plan is important."

Steve Rossi, Central Water's president, says he's been wrangling with county officials over water rights for a decade, ever since the upscale Ashley Plantation subdivision was created in Daleville and he formed Central Water to serve its residents.

So Rossi sees the latest squabble between him and the county as just more of the same.

"They're just being very difficult over this," he said.

Last year, Rossi applied to the Virginia State Corporation Commission for an application to expand the boundaries of Central Water's service territory beyond Ashley Plantation along U.S. 220. The territory also includes a big swath of land bordering about 10 miles of Interstate 81. In the application, Rossi states he expects to gain anywhere from 400 to 1,200 new customers, about three times the approximately 400 households he said he currently serves in and around Ashley Plantation.

That would equal the number of water customers that the county serves.

The majority of Botetourt County's 32,000 residents get their water from private wells or privately operated water systems in subdivisions, and use septic tanks for their sewage. The county has about 1,100 residential commercial water customers and about 2,700 residential and commercial sewer customers.

The Central Water expansion, granted by the SCC in February, gives Rossi sole rights to serve water customers in the area, even on more than 200 acres of county-owned industrial land in the Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

According to SCC rules, prior to the agency approving the application, Rossi was to inform the county of his request for an expansion and advertise it in the local newspaper for other water companies to see. That would give the county and anyone interested an opportunity to challenge the expansion before the SCC granted the application.

Rossi said he sent a letter through the U.S. Postal Service to the head of the county board of supervisors and placed an ad in a December issue of The Roanoke Times.

The SCC never received a response regarding the expansion.

"No one seemed to raise any issue with the commission that it was going to be a problem," said Ken Schrad, an SCC spokesman.

But officials at the county now say they were never made aware of the proposed expansion.

Burgess said Wendy Wingo, who was the supervisors' chairwoman last year, never received Rossi's letter. County officials never saw the newspaper ad, either, and didn't learn of the expansion until earlier this summer.

What's more, in a petition filed by the county with the SCC requesting that the application be revoked, the county alleges that Rossi "willfully misrepresented" the facts when he stated that the expanded territory wasn't currently being served by any other water utility providers.

The county's petition states that not only are the county and Fincastle providing such services, but also three subdivisions within Rossi's expanded territory have their own private water systems.

"If Botetourt County had been aware of the application or the proceeding, it would have objected to the application and requested a hearing," the petition states.

The SCC relies on companies to submit accurate requests for utility territories, It does not do its own checking with localities to see if a municipal water system is already in place.

"We take their word for it," said Schrad regarding information provided by applicants, "and they testify in front of a notary that what they said was a true and accurate statement."

Rossi, however, says his application was filed correctly and disputes that the county didn't know about it.

"That's unbelievable, I think," he said. "We did all the things we needed to do and were asked to do under the law."

In a response to the county's petition, Rossi said the expanded service area is a broad boundary and that he doesn't intend to interfere with Botetourt County or Fincastle's attempts to serve their own water customers. He also said the county wasn't interested in being in the water business until his company started making money at it.

"It now appears that the subdivision and water company have become so successful that Botetourt County would like to 'de facto' expropriate the water system," he stated in his response to the SCC.

Rossi added that his company has made recent upgrades to its infrastructure and can't continue to serve its current customers economically without expanding its customer base.

Schrad said the SCC is reviewing the county's petition and will be decide how to proceed.

"The facts will be laid out and we'll see what happens," he said.