York County, VA Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Sec. 22-71 falls under Article II, Operating Procedures, of the county's water chapter, alongside general water conservation rules for plumbing fixtures and car washes. Subsection (d), titled "Waste of Water, Leak repairs," targets excessive water use caused specifically by leakage from water lines or plumbing fixtures on the premises: once the county administrator notifies the owner of the leak, the owner must promptly repair it and stop the waste. An owner who fails to do so is subject to "the penalties for violation of this chapter," pointing to Sec.

22-9's general water chapter penalty, and to "the remedies provided in Section 22-74," the same enforcement mechanism the county uses for water conservation program violations, which allows removal of the water meter. The chapter separately defines "Underground leak" in Sec. 22-2 as a leak confined to buried pipe that cannot be seen without digging, expressly excluding leaks caused by faulty installation, a definition used elsewhere in the chapter's billing provisions when the county considers adjusting a water bill inflated by a hidden pipe leak. Sec.

22-7 gives the county administrator general authority to notify a person of any suspected chapter violation and to abate it if the person does not furnish satisfactory evidence that corrective action was taken within the time the notice specifies, which is the mechanism that triggers the Sec. 22-71(d) repair duty once excessive leak-driven usage is detected on a customer's account.