Future Water Plan
November 5, 2008
City Council recently expressed concerns about the Water Plan. The land for a pipe-line is where? How much will it cost? To spend money on a new 112 foot dam may be a waste of ratepayers money. A bigger new dam requires a pipeline. We do need to repair the present Ragged Mt. Dam, but a bigger dam?
Dredging is a viable option to spending hundreds of millions of dollars, at this time
Please e-mail the Council ( council@charlottesville.org ) and BOS (BOS@alblemarle.org) and encourage them to avoid spending more money needlessly, especially in these tough economic times.
"It is common sense that in order to plan for the future we must know how much water we need. The Gannett Fleming estimates date from 2001 and are now more than 28% above what they said they would be for the year 2010. We are using far less water than they predicted even though our population has increased. With new technologies to save water this downward trend is not only local but nationwide.
A law was enacted by the State in 2005 requiring all localities in Virginia to file for a plan for 30 - 50 years of water supply for their region. The State requires localities to do a decade by decade estimate of their water needs and this must be completed by 2011. We have not done this since 2001, and must now do it to comply with State Law.
Rivanna is resisting getting this information, I believe, because it will show we do not need to build a huge new dam at Ragged Mt. By vastly overestimating our water needs we will be paying for storing huge quantities of water now, that we may never need in the future, and since the new reservoir at Ragged Mt. cannot fill itself Rivanna’s plan requires a pipe from South Fork to be run, by electricity, and go uphill for 10 miles to reach Ragged Mt. Rivanna has no idea what this will cost, but initial estimates put it at over $200 million, for all that would be required to complete this plan.
A dredging study is underway and the initial phase shows that dredging would be a far less destructive alternative and the second phase of the study will give the cost, which we already believe, from previous professional opinions, will be far lower than building the dam/pipeline concept, and provide all the water we need for decades in a less environmentally destructive way.
Mayor Norris, against incredible opposition from Rivanna and the County, has said Council must have the dredging information and know, what the State requires for the State Water Plan; how much water do we need given updated information for the last decade. Also he has insisted that Rivanna provide a more realistic assessment of the conservation that has already been implemented by the City and County, but not factored into Rivanna’s dam/pipeline plan. Let us all applaud Dave Norris for the integrity he is showing and the insistance [sic] - to not move forward without valid information on such a costly enterprise.
We all need to support his efforts, or we will be the ones who have allowed this huge waste of money and environmental destruction at Ragged Mt. to needlessly occur when a far better alternative exists.
Please talk to our Council and if you are in the County to the Board. Rivanna and powerful forces in the county are still trying to prevent new information from being considered and pushing to build the dam no matter what the cost or burden it places on the ratepayers.”
Betty [Mooney]
Posted by Colette Hall Permanent Link 7 Comments
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1Adley Fair | March 11, 2010
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stubby holders