Earlier this week, the Charlottesville City Council held a public hearing and the first reading on new utility rates for Fiscal Year 2026 including a sharp increase in the price of water. That story will be coming up later this week.
Much of the reason for the increase is related to a $550 million capital improvement program (CIP) adopted by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority at their meeting on May 27, 2025. Funding to cover debt service is paid for by the Albemarle County Service Authority and the City of Charlottesville.
“We’ve had a number of generational projects, as we’ve called them, and they’re moving forward,” said Bill Mawyer, executive director of the RWSA.
One of those projects is called the Central Water Line, a five-mile long pipe that will connect water from the Stadium Road area to Long Street. That’s one of those generational projects in the CIP. The RWSA recently asked contractors to make construction bids on the first phase and they all came in within budget.
“We did receive five competitive bids earlier this month ranging from 39.7 to 68.5 million,” Mawyer said. “We continue to evaluate those bids and expect to make a record recommendation to the board in June for an award.”
The first phase covers about four miles.
Other items to increase capacity involved the Ragged Mountain Reservoir. The RWSA is moving ahead with plans to increase the pool height of the reservoir in anticipation of another capital project that will allow it to be filled more quickly.
Mawyer said Faulconer Construction was the lone contractor that responded with a $12 million bid, or about double the anticipated estimate.
“We are negotiating and working with Faulconer right now to see how we can maybe bring the price down,” Mawyer said.
One constraint with the project is that trees can only be cleared between November 15 to March 31 due to the presence of an endangered species. Northern long-eared bats are on the federal Endangered Species Act in part resulting in protection, according to the Virginia Department of Forestry.
Later in the meeting, RWSA Chief Engineer Jennifer Whitaker gave a review of the CIP.
Listen to this story:
“Our main goal with the Capital Improvement Plan, if you take nothing else away, is to plan, deliver and maintain dependable infrastructure,” Whitaker said.
The $550 million plan covers items that will be built over the next five years including the Central Water Line and the long-awaited nine-mile pipeline to connect Ragged Mountain Reservoir with the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.
“It’s a large diameter main as well as a new intake facility and large pump station here at the northern end,” Whittaker said. “We’re looking at bidding that late fall into the winter and then awarding early in 2026. That is an approximately $117 million project.”
The RWSA’s Board of Directors consists of three representatives from Albemarle and three from Charlottesville with a seventh member appointed by both City Council and the Board of Supervisors. There are agreements in place that determine how much each community pays based on their need for additional capacity.
“ACSA is paying for approximately 69 percent of the total capital budget,” Whittaker said. “The city’s paying the net of 31 percent or $173 million.”
The projects had the support of City Councilor Brian Pinkston.
“This is a really strong plan and even though it is a significant lift financially, the community should feel good about the fact that where their system stands,” Pinkston said.
Supervisor Ann Mallek also expressed support.
“We’ve been working on this for 30 years, so everything is more expensive than it was if we’d done it right a long, long time ago,” Mallek said.
After adopting the CIP, the RWSA Board also had to adopt rates and a budget for the next fiscal year. The only two customers are the ACSA and the City of Charlottesville. Of the $64 million budget, $33 million is debt service to pay for capital projects.
“Our $64 million budget is going to be about 16 percent higher than last year, driven primarily by increases in our debt Service for the $550 million CIP program and the charges that would be allocated to the city and the service authority accordingly,” Mawyer said.
The only speaker during the public comment period was former City Councilor Dede Smith, a longtime opponent of the community water supply plan as well as the Central Water Line. She claimed that the latter project was too risky and could lead to some people in the city having their water connections severed.
“I’ve followed this for decades now and I’ve just never seen anything like this,” Smith said. “And there just seems to be no recognition about the impact of these kinds of rate increases.”
Smith called the RWSA a monopoly and expressed concern that people living in the urban area do not have a choice.
The RWSA Board approved the budget and the rates charged to the ACSA and Charlottesville will take effect on July 1, 2025.
As for those water rates in the city, a preview of an upcoming story.
The current summer rate is $88.83 per 1,000 cubic feet. The proposal is to increase that effective July 1 to $100.52 per 1,000 cubic feet, a 13.16 percent increase.
The current winter rate is $68.33 per 1,000 cubic feet. The proposal is to increase that to $77.33. That’s a 13.17 percent increase.
Before you go: This story was originally posted in the June 2, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and then posted here two days later. There likely is a better system but I don’t yet have it in place. If you’d like to help me on the way there, please take a look at this section of this website.
Discover more from Information Charlottesville
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I would like to see budget plans set up for residents. Other utilities offer these plans and it’s a big help financially. Water and sewer are ridiculously high and seems more hikes are coming.