It took a couple of hours, but at a rare joint meeting on November 25, Charlottesville’s City Council was able to work out a compromise with the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors that both sides hope will appease skeptical citizens without holding up the
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City and county residents will pay for a $25,000 pipeline review that may or may not come up with a more firm cost figure of what had been estimated a few years ago as a $56 million expenditure. |
50-year community water supply plan.
The city and county agreed to spend up to $25,000 to hire experts to review conceptual plans for a new 9.5-mile pipeline that would connect the area’s largest reservoirs, Ragged Mountain and South Fork Rivanna.
“I think it’s prudent, especially in light of the cost increases that appear to be taking place in the dam part of the project to make certain that the costs of the other components are reasonably estimated,” said county Supervisor Dennis Rooker. “I believe [the pipeline] is reasonable, but I think it would be helpful to have a panel of experts look at it.”
Last week’s meeting was held with the two other boards that control the local water infrastructure, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) and the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA), after City Council passed a resolution November 3 that the other boards interpreted as an impediment to the process.
| Previous coverage:
Design work continues for new dam Green groups splinter over water plan Flood of water repairs What a difference a day makes Water may be low, but blame’s high Flowing toward the future |
The decision to re-examine the pipeline concept is another vote of little confidence in Gannett Fleming, the Pennsylvania-based consulting company hired to implement the community water supply plan in 2002. Gannett Fleming was later hired to oversee construction of a new dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, but in August, the company basically doubled cost estimates of the new dam to at least $72 million after rock borings suggested the dam would have to be more extensive. RWSA had another engineering firm, Schnabel, look at Gannett Fleming’s report. Schnabel said the dam could be built for as cheap as $56 million. RWSA ordered Gannett Fleming to stop work on the dam’s design until a panel of experts could review the project.
But in spending $25,000 on a separate panel of experts to review the pipeline—a panel of experts that will only review the work done by Gannett Fleming, not conduct any new studies—elected officials by and large aimed to appease the public, not themselves.
“I think a big issue for City Council, and what’s driving this resolution, is the fact that City residents are increasingly becoming very concerned about the costs of the dam and the costs of the pipeline,” said City Councilor David Brown. “…We’ve been having six or eight speakers meeting after meeting after meeting. I think we have a responsibility to make sure that our residents have confidence in Gannett Fleming and confidence in the process that’s moving forward.”
“It is more about the public in terms of the pipeline specifically,” said Norris in an interview after the meeting. “I think it is more about assuring the public that this a viable project versus convincing elected officials.” Unlike the supply plan’s harshest critics—those who compose the group Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan as well as Hook Editor Hawes Spencer—Norris believes that the major elements of the plan are solid, including the pipeline and a new dam. He is, however, interested in lowering the new dam’s height if possible.
Some county supervisors, and several members of ACSA’s board, were concerned that spending money on a pipeline review panel that didn’t conduct any new studies was a waste. County Supervisor David Slutzky wondered aloud at the meeting whether they were “doing something useful with taxpayers’ money in the short term or are we kind of creating the illusion that we’ve now looked at it again?” By the end of the meeting, however, Slutzky went along with the review.
City Council didn’t get everything it wanted. The county would not agree with the city on hiring outside experts to make recommendations about reducing water consumption per capita, nor did it agree to revisit the future demand calculations that went into the 50-year water supply plan. Instead, city and ACSA staff will work together on conservation efforts.
Rooker said that he challenged the demand numbers before, but ultimately became resigned to them. “Maybe we’ve got a 65-year plan instead of a 50-year plan,” said Rooker, “and maybe that’s not altogether bad.”
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