Hildebrand: Charlottesville has enough water and sewer capacity for 20,000 more people

The December 13 work session began with a briefing from the city’s utilities director on the status of the water and sewer system operated by her department. This was prompted from several speakers at the December 5 public hearing who wanted to know more information about how the city pays for infrastructure. 

“We have an asset management program in utilities and it’s very data-driven,” Hildebrand said. “For example, when we get site plans in and things are uploaded to GIS, we actually will upload it to this dashboard so we know based on all of the various utilities what the pipe material is, what the size of the pipe is, how much footage it adds to the total miles of the utility.”

Hildebrand said wastewater flows are monitored closely and have been since the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has required Charlottesville to take steps to ensure stormwater is not getting into sewer pipes. 

“Generally our sewers when you look at what the flows are, it’s twenty percent of less that’s in use right now.”

Hildebrand said major capacity upgrades would be needed when capacity is at fifty percent or higher. The city purchases water production and wastewater treatment from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and works with the Albemarle County Service Authority to plan for future capacity. 

Rates are set to cover both operating costs and debt service for financing for capital projects.  Those projects are not funded through the general fund

For more details, seek out Hildebrand’s presentation. 

After she was done, Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook had a question.

“Let’s assume for the moment that in the next 25 years, Charlottesville’s population increases by 20,000 people,” Snook said. “Is that going to cause any reason to be concerned about a need to upsize anything in the sewer system?”

Hildebrand said her department has reviewed the system in advance of the Development Code.

“When we looked at it, we thought the existing infrastructure has adequate capacity,” Hildebrand said. 

“And you looked at it with this specific question in mind?” Snook asked.

“Yes, I did,” Hildebrand said. 

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