Residents from a development north of Leesburg who have complained about water quality problems for years had another disappointment last week, when the Environmental Protection Agency denied their repeated requests to perform a dye-tracing study of the community’s water system.

Loudoun County Supervisor Sarah R. “Sally” Kurtz (D-Catoctin), who represents the Raspberry Falls community, first requested a dye-tracing study in October 2009, after numerous residents voiced concerns that contaminated water was affecting their health.

Those concerns intensified last November, when one of the two communal wells that provide water to the 134 homes in Raspberry Falls was permanently disconnected after the Virginia Department of Health found that the untreated groundwater was under the direct influence of surface water. After pressure from residents and a request from the Loudoun Board of Supervisors, Loudoun Water’s board of directors voted in January to examine several potential solutions to the problem, including the possibility of extending a central water pipeline from Leesburg to Raspberry Falls.

Residents appealed to the EPA in December and again in March, imploring the agency to proceed with the study. Loudoun Water stated its intent to cooperate with the EPA, but Van Metre, a construction company that built many of the homes in the subdivision and that owns parts of the property, contested the EPA’s authority to perform the study, saying that Loudoun Water should conduct the investigation, according to correspondence between attorneys representing the EPA and Van Metre. Loudoun officials said this year that the government would assist the EPA in its efforts to obtain the property owner’s permission to gain access to the area, but the tests were never performed.

In a May 24 letter to Roy L. Mason, an attorney representing residents of Raspberry Falls, the EPA said that they would not proceed with the dye-tracing study because the results “would not trigger any additional requirements for the Raspberry Falls system that Loudoun Water is not already considering.”

As a result of the EPA’s reply, a public hearing requested by Raspberry Falls residents before the Virginia Department of Health was cancelled, according to Michael McGill, a spokesman for Loudoun Water.

Greg Branic, a member of the Raspberry Falls homeowners association, said residents think the best long-term solution to the subdivision’s water problem is a connection to Leesburg’s water supply. Community members are concerned about the possible costs of an enhanced water treatment system, one of the possible options under consideration by Loudoun Water, he said.

“If you do a water treatment plant out here, the way the communal system works, the cost of maintenance alone would be a burden on homeowners,” he said.

Branic said members of the community were also not satisfied by Loudoun Water’s connection between Raspberry Falls and the wells of the nearby Selma Estates development, where two recent tests indicated the presence of E. coli bacteria in the untreated water supply, according to Loudoun Water.

“Selma Estates is dealing with the same problems we are, so nobody out here sees that as a long-term solution, either,” Branic said.

McGill said the connection between the Raspberry Falls and Selma Estates wells is for “emergency purposes” only. He also said Loudoun Water would conduct 20 tests over the next 10 weeks on the water supply in Selma Estates to determine whether the untreated water in that development is also under the direct influence of groundwater.

“There is no issue with the treated water at all,” he said, adding that the E. coli bacteria in the untreated water was present “at the lowest detectable level.”

The 960-acre Raspberry Falls community is located on “karst” terrain, meaning that the subdivision’s wells are surrounded by rocky ground that does not filter surface water as effectively as sand or soil. Underground channels in the limestone allow contaminants — such as bacteria and pesticides from nearby farms and a golf course — to easily enter the untreated water supply.

More than 250 residents of Raspberry Falls filed a lawsuit Feb. 17 against Loudoun Water and several construction companies. Some of the lawsuit’s complaints, including the allegation that Loudoun Water actively concealed the hazards of water contamination from Raspberry Falls residents, were dismissed by the Loudoun County Circuit Court on May 6.

McGill said Loudoun Water would seek the dismissal of the remainder of the lawsuit’s complaints at a hearing Wednesday.