Stafford County, VA Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Sec. 25-121 puts the county's public utilities department in charge of managing, operating and maintaining the entire reclaimed water distribution system, including future extensions and all associated property and contracts. A customer cannot simply tap into that system: Sec. 25-122 requires a written application with maps and volume data, and the director's decision to disapprove an application can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors within 30 days. Actual service depends on a reclaimed water service agreement under Sec. 25-123, which must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and sets the customer's availability charges, connection fees, allocation of infrastructure responsibilities and permissible non-potable uses.

The safety core of the program sits in Sec. 25-133: reclaimed water customers must ensure reclaimed water never contaminates the county's potable water system, direct connections between reclaimed and potable water facilities are flatly prohibited, and if potable water is used to supplement reclaimed water the customer must install and maintain an air gap separation of at least eight inches, a backflow prevention device, or both, at locations the department requires. Sec. 25-134 layers on state DEQ standards, barring storage of reclaimed water in an unapproved tank or pond and requiring signage under 9VAC25-740-160.

Enforcement has real teeth: under Sec. 25-133(g), knowingly leaving a cross-connection violation uncorrected after the director's deadline is a class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and up to 12 months in jail, with each day of continued noncompliance a separate offense, and Sec. 25-136 makes tampering with or damaging the reclaimed water system its own class 1 misdemeanor.