A drought in 2002 created a planning process that sought to expand the overall capacity and implementation is about to enter into a new stage.
“The community water supply plan was completed in 2012,” said Lauren Hildebrand, the city’s utilities director. “It was executed by the city, Albemarle County Service Authority, and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.”
The plan called for the replacement of two aging dams at Ragged Mountain with a new earthen dam as well as a pipeline to connect the reservoir with another at the South Fork Rivanna about nine miles away. That would replace an existing waterline from Sugar Hollow Reservoir to Ragged Mountain that is around a hundred years old.
Ratepayers of the Albemarle County Service Authority paid for 85 percent of the new dam which was completed in 2014 but the pool was only raised to 671 feet above sea level.
The cost share for the pipeline is 80 percent.
“This pipeline is in the planning process and projected to be constructed by 2030,” Hildebrand said.
The agreement has conditions that determine when the reservoir’s pool could be increased to its full volume at 683 feet above sea level.
“It cannot be raised until ten years before the community’s water demand is at 85 percent of the available water capacity,” Hildebrand said.
The additional 12 feet will allow for 700 million more gallons of water. For perspective, those on public water and sewer consume about 10 million gallons a day.
The trails at the Ragged Mountain Natural Area have been built at the higher pool level. Hildebrand said the increase is being requested for several reasons.
“Rivanna, the city, and Albemarle County Service Authority staff have had multiple discussions about the changing climate and what that means to us and the utility world and our infrastructure,” Hildebrand said. “It means more frequent, more intense storms. Regarding drought, we may have more frequent and lengthy drought periods.”
The filling of the reservoir would not happen right away. Bill Mawyer, the executive director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, laid out the next steps.
“We’ll begin the design to modify,” Mawyer said. “We have to do some grading around Ragged Mountain Reservoir, and we have to modify the intake tower.”
Mawyer said that could take about a year or so before a contractor is hired to make the improvements.
“Somewhat concurrently around 2026 we expect to start the major pipeline from Rivanna Reservoir to Ragged Mountain which is the primary way that we intend to keep water in Ragged Mountain is through that pipeline, but we don’t expect to complete that until about 2030,” Mawyer said.
Mawyer was not at the RWSA when the agreement was struck, nor were any other members of City Council.
“I still don’t quite understand what is the reasoning for pursuing this charge now,” said City Councilor Michael Payne. “Is it specific economic development projects Albemarle is moving towards? Is it just a change in philosophy of the system should just have the theoretical maximum capacity possible?”
Mawyer said other parts of the country are having record droughts, and RWSA wants to be prepared if there’s an extended one here.
“Let’s be proactive and fill this reservoir that’s already been built to accept the additional 12 feet, let’s fill it now within the next couple of years as soon as we can,” Mawyer said.
Council voted 5 to 0 to accept the change.
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