LUCKETTS, Va. — In a quiet hamlet off Route 15 -- Lucketts, Virginia -- the wineries and restaurants essential to the village's tourism industry all rely on well water. But one of their neighbors could be putting their access to that resource in jeopardy.
Ed Vaughn, owner of “Earth’s Brew” bottled water, has already drilled several deepwater wells in a section of northern Loudoun County that is rich with limestone. Now, he wants to pump out millions of gallons of water, bottle it up and sell it.
"We are a tight community, and we're just being torn apart with this," neighbor Cheryl Hillebrand said.
The limestone-rich soil in parts of Loudoun County is great for holding water in underground aquifers. But scientists say if you drain it too fast, limestone can collapse and create sinkholes.
There haven’t been any sinkholes due to Earth’s Brew since it hasn’t extracted water yet. But Loudoun County has a history of sinkholes and resulting damage.
The Earth’s Brew website invites customers to come and visit their site at Droumawalla Farm. So WUSA9 took them up on their invitation.
We met a manager on site who contacted Vaughn, but he postponed multiple attempts to take a tour of his land and answer WUSA9's questions.
Loudoun County permitted the drilling of several Earth’s Brew water wells in 2020, but so far there are no permits for their operation. When WUSA9 toured the area, there was no sign the wells are pumping water yet.
The office for Loudoun County Supervisor Caleb Kershner said the pumping part of the project was denied by the zoning commissioner due to possible environmental impact.
“Oh boy. That one is bad, if it is as described," wrote a member of Loudoun's Natural Resources Team in an email regarding the drilling project, which was given to WUSA9 by Lucketts residents.
And yet, despite that commissioner denial, Vaughn told WUSA9 over the phone in October he still intended to move ahead with the project, but didn’t explain how.
"The concern is not only the water," neighbor Jeffrey Judge said. "It's the transportation of moving that water once it's pulled out.
Most roads in Lucketts are only two lanes.
"The county should have a plan that's published and everybody should be able to see it," Judge added. "That's what scares me. If there's a number of trucks, it's going to really rumble."
Several Lucketts business owners said they are concerned with Earth’s Brew planning to extract millions of gallons of water, fearing there won’t be enough left for the wells serving local wineries and farms.
"This is going way above what the county should be allowing in this space because it doesn't affect just residential," neighbor Julie Tassi said. "That affects the agribusiness that people come to Loudoun for."
There are still many unanswered questions in this equation. How many trucks will this take? How many gallons of water will be pumped? And how much money is at stake?
Lucketts residents haven’t had any county meetings on the subject. The few answers they get are commercial pitches from Earth’s Brew's own website promising "some of the most minerally-rich water in the nation” filtered through the ancient limestone underneath Loudoun County.
While Vaughn isn’t revealing his next plans for the project, neighbors fear he’ll be successful if he changes and resubmits his drilling plan to the zooming commissioner.