Solving a dispute over future water rights in Botetourt County could be as simple as marking an "X" on a county map.

That was the ruling Thursday during a preliminary hearing by the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Botetourt County officials and Steve Rossi, the president of Central Water Co., have been ordered to meet at the county administration offices in Fincastle on Nov. 14 to stake their claims to current and future water rights in the fast-growing Daleville area.

At issue is which entity legally holds those rights.

Botetourt last month requested that the SCC revoke its approval for Central Water to expand beyond its current service area at the Ashley Plantation subdivision in Daleville. The request came after the SCC in February agreed to let Central Water expand into a loosely defined territory beyond the subdivision along U.S. 220 toward Fincastle.

The county says the territory includes parts of Fincastle and 200 acres of county-owned industrial land in the Botetourt Center at Greenfield that the localities are already serving or plan to serve.

The SCC agreement gave Central Water sole rights to serve water customers in the territory. The county argued that Central Water neglected to note in its application the county and the town's presence there. The county also alleges it was never properly informed of the expansion under SCC guidelines.

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. But as the Daleville area grows, more attention is being paid by the county to public water service in the area.

Central Water expects to gain anywhere from 400 to 1,200 new customers with the expansion. That's about as many customers as the county currently serves.

Without discussing who is entitled to the county's future water rights, the county suggested at Thursday's hearing that its conflicts with Central Water's expansion might be reduced next month by a better defined map of the area.

Michael Quinan, a Richmond lawyer representing the county who specializes in public utility regulation, said a detailed map would better "define and narrow the issues that really are in dispute, and maybe even resolve some of them."

Rossi said he has "no intention" of serving any areas already served by the county or Fincastle, or getting involved in the county's future tenants in the industrial park.

Thursday's hearing came after the county notified the SCC last month that Rossi "willfully misrepresented" that the expanded territory wasn't currently being served by any other water utility providers and didn't notify local government officials of the proposed expansion.

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 has said he mailed 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.

Whatever dispute remains after next month's meeting, the SCC will act then to resolve it, likely by setting another hearing.

Central Water currently serves about 400 households in Ashley Plantation and has made recent upgrades to its infrastructure. Rossi has said he can't continue to serve his current customers economically without expanding his customer base.

Alvin Thacker Jr., vice president of the Ashley Plantation Homeowners Association, said the average monthly water bill for him and his wife is about $27. But he said he has neighbors who water their lawns regularly and have $300 monthly bills. Ashley residents support Central Water's expansion because they don't want their rates to go up, Thacker said.

"You can see the handwriting on the wall," he said. "They're putting in all this money to upgrade their facility, and to help pay for that they want to expand outward. If they don't, then they're going to expand upward, and that means they're going to charge us more."

But Thacker also said residents have an allegiance to Central Water, because it provided water to the subdivision when the county refused.

"After years of leaving water service to private companies because Botetourt County didn't need to get into the water business, the current board and administrator have decided to take over," he said.