Take my water system. Please.

Barbara Layne of Big Sur inherited the Garrapata Water Co. from her late husband, Joel Morris, in 1978.

Now she can't even give it away, especially now that the Monterey County Health Department is demanding that the company install a chlorination and filtering system for the well water it provides to 40 customers along Garrapata Creek.

Her current husband, lawyer Donald Layne, has filed a Superior Court petition for a writ of mandate challenging the order, contending that the county Health Department is abusing its discretion.

Garrapata Water Co. was founded by the investors who developed the area, a group of physicians from Palo Alto, and it was offered to everyone who owned a house there.

Morris took it over in 1973 to make sure the neighborhood had a reliable water source, and Barbara Layne inherited the system along with the rest of his estate.

The system consists of a well, four large storage tanks holding 51,000 gallons among them, a road, a pump system and a pipeline. Efforts to sell or give the system to California-American Water Co. or some other utility have been unsuccessful.

"They're smarter than we are," said Donald Layne, "and they won't take it."

"I'm the lawyer, plumber, mechanic and trouble-shooter," he said, adding that both he and his wife are caught up in "involuntary servitude" to keep the system running. Adding to the burden is the order from the Health Department.

The order, signed by county Environmental Health Director Allen Stroh, deems their well to be influenced by surface water, meaning it is subject to possible contamination and needs to be filtered and chlorinated as a precaution.

The Laynes have until Sept. 12 to hire an engineering firm to build the treatment facilities, until Nov. 21 to submit a detailed report and schedule of construction, and until Feb. 20, 2004, to complete the work or face fines of up to $250 a day.

The well is only 40 feet deep. State standards require a community well to be deeper than 50 feet.

Standards also require a waterproof seal around the well shaft at the 50-foot depth to prevent surface water from seeping in. Since the well has been drilled down to bedrock, it can't go any deeper, the Laynes said, and if a 50-foot seal was put around it, it wouldn't draw any water.

Garrapata Water's second well, dug in 1975, falls under the state's surface water rule because of its depth and construction, according to Roger Van Horn of the Health Department.

The well was drilled down to bedrock, Donald Layne said, and is sealed at 20 feet, which is as far as it could go and still draw water. The state code, he argued, deems well water to be contaminated by surface water when bacteria, insects and algae are found in it, which is not the case with Garrapata's well.

Barbara Layne said the well is inspected each month and more than meets state standards for cleanliness. Over 30 years of operation, the Laynes said, no one drinking the water has gotten sick from it.

Neither she, her husband nor any of the other customers of Garrapata Water want the fresh well water chlorinated, she said.

For one thing, the chlorine will kill the koi in her fish pond, unless an additional filtering system is installed to take it out, Barbara Layne said.

For another, Donald Layne said, he doesn't want to have to be handling and storing a dangerous chemical like chlorine just to satisfy the county.

County officials just don't understand the law governing wells, he contended, and he plans to contest the county's demand in court. Both the Laynes are lawyers.

The cost of installing the system will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, they said.

"We have taken many similar enforcement actions for small community water systems along the coast using wells influenced by surface water," said Marianne Dennis, chief of the Health Department's resource protection branch.

The well is drilled next to Garrapata Creek, she said, doesn't have a deep seal, and is subject to getting surface water in the drinking supply.

County records of the well's monthly inspections, Dennis added, do show some signs of bacteria in the past.