There are two ordinances/laws that have been birthed since 2019 which come together to create a denial mechanism one of several ways - and both are suspect and one is outright unlawful.
== POU/POE Ordinance ==
POU/POE Ordinance - Around 2018 the Board kicked up a proposal to regulate/mandate Point of Use or Point of Entry filtration systems on rural homes on well systems with 14 or less connections. That's about 1100 water systems and about 4400 properties (as near as I can estimate) . They were doing it under the guise of a "right to affordable water" mandate. The problems with this were numerous and it seemed obvious there were ulterior motives but hard to figure what / which they were.
Title 22 - first and foremost Title 22 establishes systems with 14 or less connections as a "private water systems" instead of public water systems -- and private systems are NOT subject to 'enforceable' potable water requirements like public systems (15 connections and above) Thus, the entire thing was unlawful because it violated state law which was built on federal law. it should have stopped there. but it did not
Affordable water -- They compared cases of bottled water to estimated costs for owning and managing a complex filtration system -- claimed the systems cost less and mandated systems. (can you imagine that?) They gave fascism a new name. Beyond the obvious, the problem is that the most affordable purchased drinking water is from "water kiosks" and they omitted that entirely from their cost analysis. Who does that and why?
For context related to full system filtration or point of entry filtration --- only about 7 drops of every 1000 drops of water drawn from a well for domestic use is for consumption . given the complexities and cost for filtration why would anyone engage in filtration unless forced to?
So the focus for conspiracy theorists was on fascism - forced purchase of filtration systems and/or just general inversion and control for control sake.
The ordinance passed against huge public opposition that was not responded to and then it was immediately halted by a lawsuit. Everyone thought that was for one of the absurdities above, and attention on it was lost due to the absurdity and COVID. Then in 2023, after Glenn Church was on the Board, -- it was quietly introduced with modification and implemented with a change from the lawsuit. that change removed the ability to issue permits for ADU or new construction if the well had drinking water related "contamination issues". But drinking water related "contamination issues" as defined by the county are not remotely what you think they are and in fact - legally there were/are none that are even enforceable on wells with 14 connections or less. Some issues categorized as "contamination issues" are NOT a health hazard, like Coliform, which is used as a proxy for "possible contamination". Others like 'nitrates' are truly questionable from a health perspective -- and not even included in regular well testing on systems of 14 connections or below BUT they claim a pass is requred for new construction or a new connection?
What had transpired with the POU / POE Ordinance, behind the scenes was a blocker for new permits -- and likely the reason for the