Mauzy residents continue to speak out against proposed truck stop - WHSV

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MAUZY, Va. (WHSV) - Several people in Mauzy are voicing their opposition to a proposed truck stop that would be built on a 31-acre property just off of Interstate 81 at exit 257. The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors will consider the proposal on Wednesday afternoon.

Gas City LLC based in Leesburg is requesting a rezoning of the property to rezone the property from A-2 General Agriculture to BX Business Interchange. The County’s planning commission narrowly recommended approval of the project with a 3-2 vote earlier in August.

Since the proposal was first brought forward a number of Mauzy residents have been urging supervisors to vote no on the truck stop proposal. They cite a number of problems including environmental concerns.

“The main issue for us is that this site that has no public water or sewer is not compatible with a project of this size and scale,” said Watt Bradshaw who lives downstream from the property.

Bradshaw is part of a fourth-generation family farm along Smith Creek. He is concerned that water runoff from the truck stop would contaminate groundwater and the creek.

“Our farm has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars improving the stream as have many of my neighbors and we wouldn’t want that to be jeopardized by needed projects like this,” said Bradshaw.

Bradshaw is not alone in his concerns. Alliance For The Shenandoah Valley, a local conservation group, recently sent a letter to the county’s supervisors urging them to deny the project. It said that the area’s karst topography makes it likely that runoff from the truck stop could pollute the groundwater.

“Underground is kind of like Swiss cheese. So you see a lot of sinkholes in areas that are karst, you see a lot of caves and springs. So it’s a sign that there’s a connection between the surface water and the groundwater,” said Kate Wofford, Executive Director of Alliance For the Shenandoah Valley.

Wofford said that Smith Creek is an important tributary to the North Fork of the Shenandoah River and said that the truck stop could contaminate the creek.

“It’s a creek that’s important to the community. It’s an important source of drinking water and it’s a risky place to put a development of this scale that’s not on public sewer and water,” she said.

Those in opposition also point out that the project would go against Rockingham County’s Comprehensive Plan.

“Rockingham County’s comp plan is very clear that the county wants to maintain agriculture through locating development in areas where there are existing towns, where there is existing public sewer and water,” said Wofford.

Watt Bradshaw said that the amount of water the truck stop plaza would require would be overwhelming to the area’s groundwater because of the lack of public water and sewer.

“The usage of the water that this project would have could be as much as 300 houses and they would never allow 300 houses to go into a site like this without public water and sewer,” he said.

Theresa Kehm lives directly across from the property and is worried that the truck stop could have a devastating impact on her property.

“We had to drill a 750-foot well to get three gallons a minute and we’re just very much concerned that with there being no public water that when they start drilling for their well or multiple wells, that they will run ours dry,” said Kehm. “Essentially it would make our property absolutely worthless.”

Kehm and her husband moved to the area from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania 22 years ago. She said they left the Poconos because of problems due to overdevelopment and would hate to see the same thing happen in Rockingham County.

“There are some many small towns where the streets are just lined with what were lovely little businesses and they’re now rundown, vacated properties, and amongst that, you have mega businesses,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to go back and look at that and know what it once was and it’s also heartbreaking to think that if this county doesn’t get that problem under control we will have the same problems here.”

Residents also worry about traffic problems that the truck stop could bring.

“This exit at certain times of the day is completely jammed up. Cars are backed down to I-81 and in the morning they’re backed up on 259 all the way around the corner above the stop light so we think that traffic is a major issue,” said Bradshaw.

WHSV spoke briefly with Gurcharan Leil, the owner of Gas City LLC on Tuesday.

Leil said that the truck stop will be a good neighbor to the people of Mauzy and claimed the stormwater management system that would be installed on the property would prevent any runoff problems. He added that the truck stop would also have a state-of-the-art water and oil separator when draining runoff.

The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors will meet on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Rockingham County Government Center.

Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved.

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