Faith Beanland of Scaggsville has lived in her home off of Old Scaggsville Road for 32 years and occasionally thinks it has become too much house for her. But because a county easement that drains water from nearby properties has left a 15-foot long ditch in her backyard, she worries she could not sell her home.

The problem began in 2005, Beanland said, when the construction of new homes nearby increased the water runoff into her yard. She said she has been trying to get the county government to fix the problem, but no one has helped.

"I want my grass to grow. I want the water to stop ripping my yard out," she said. "I haven't got a prayer of stopping this water.

"The county designed it. The county installed it," she said of the easement. "And the county is responsible for it not being effective for the last five years."

The county, however, claims that maintenance of the easements through which the water flows is the responsibility of the homeowner.

"County officials have spoken with Ms. Beanland several times since 2005, and have visited her residence more than once to investigate her concerns," county spokesman Kevin Enright wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

"After looking into this issue the County has made it clear to Ms. Beanland (in person and in writing) that her property maintenance issue is not the responsibility of the County."

But Beanland claims that maintenance of the easement means cutting the grass, not restructuring a water drainage system.

"I can't maintain that," she said. "I'm not an engineer."

She added that she did not design the drainage system near her house so she should not have to restructure it. "What worked 32 years ago is not working right now," she said.

Enright also took issue with Beanland's suggestion that increased development in the area has caused the problems.

"We don't believe that to be the case," Enright said.

Beanland insists otherwise. The addition of new houses on nearby Route 216 and a neighbor's new garage have increased the water flow into her yard, she said. When her house was built in 1977, she said, county officials did not anticipate the increased development of the county and now her back yard is ripped up because the easements are overloaded.

Another problem, she said, is that a wide slab of cement known as a "level spreader," meant to disperse the impact of the water flowing down the easements by spreading it over a wide area, no longer works. The piles of rocks in the easements that used to break up the impact of the water as it tunneled down toward Beanland's backyard have disappeared, she said, and now the level spreader can no longer handle the flow.

"The more rain we have the worse it is," she said.

"I've had the county out here and the state out here and I'm literally appalled that they could tell me it's my responsibility," she said. "This is simply not the ... right thing to do."

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