Greene Supervisors vote to move forward with smaller water supply

The Greene County Board of Supervisors has spent a lot of time in the past few years discussing how to proceed with a water supply plan and took another step forward at their meeting on June 24.

The president of WW Associates has been working on the plan for 21 years and reminded Supervisors that Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality has requirements that all communities have a plan for water. (see the regulations)

“The goal of this project is to supply Greene county in the town of Stansville with reliable water supply till the year 2060,” said Herbert White. “This plan is consistent with the town and the county’s regional water supply plan through that state statute.”

The state statute is intended to ensure that communities are prepared for drought.

Right now Greene County’s municipal water supply plan comes straight from the Rapidan River and is treated at a plant that is nearing the end of its useful life. Greene County is authorized to take up to 0.9 million gallons a day and service is provided to the Town of Stanardsville and the Ruckersville area.

In late January, Supervisors directed White’s firm to engage in value engineering on the plan to impound White Run to create a reservoir. Value engineering often happens when project costs exceed expectations.

“Originally, the scope was to develop 900 million gallons worth of water,” White said. “The value engineering scope we’re offering the county at this moment is a reservoir with 600 million gallons of water. This would decrease the dam height by 6 feet, but more importantly would reduce the base width by 36 feet. That therefore decreases the volume of earthwork significantly.”

The new water treatment plant had been designed to process three million gallons a day with an option to double that capacity in the future. The new scope would provide two million gallons a day.

“This too provides significant cost, a reduction in the cost of concrete, steel and physical plant associated with that,” White said.

The pump station that brings in water from the Rapidan River to the treatment plant would be reduced in scope from 10 million gallons a day to 8 million gallons a day. The size of the pipe would be reduced from 30 inches in diameter to 24 inches in diameter.

The changes would bring the cost estimates down from $87 million to $65.5 million.

White reminded the board that the county has a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take up to 10 million gallons a day from the Rapidan as well as the impoundment on White Run. The county also has a permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Work is already underway on components of the project.

“We have built the access road up to the site for the water treatment plant that’s on Vista Heights Drive that has been approved by [the Virginia Department of Transportation] and is being taken into their system,” White said. “The raw water line was approved by the health department as well as the intake pump station. The reservoir was approved by [the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.]”

White said the project would be built in multiple phases with the raw water main first at $6 million. Next would be the raw water intake and pump station at $8 million. The reservoir itself would be the third phase with a construction estimate of $23 million. The water treatment plant would be fourth at $25 million, followed by the reservoir intake and pump station at $3.5 million.

Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum encouraged the Board to move forward in order to guide development.

“Virginia state code restricts localities’ power to stop growth,” Williamson said. “It does provide significant powers via development areas and service districts to steer growth where it is more efficient to deliver government services. Water and sewer are a key component to such smart growth.”

Other speakers questioned the amount of money that would be spent even with the reduced scope.

“Reducing the estimated cost from $87 million to $65.5 million looks good on paper,” said Jennifer Lewis-Fowler of the Midway District. “However, these are estimated costs. Historically, most projects, large or small, end up costing more money and taking more time than estimated. Data suggests that overruns can be anywhere between 16 and 28 percent or higher.”

Lewis-Fowler questioned whether the county will be able to make enough through user fees to pay for the entire project.

Supervisor Marie Durrer of Midway District agreed with Williamson that it is time to move forward.

“I’ve been in favor of the reservoir from day one,” Durrer said. “I feel the phase approach is the best thing for our county at this time. “

Supervisor Francis McGuigan questioned the math that had been presented to the board and said he would prefer the county drill more wells for the municipal water supply because it would be cheaper.

“If we drilled seven additional wells, we could double the capacity that Greene currently provides, meaning an additional 3,000 homes and additional like number of businesses,” McGuigan said.

McGuigan said he could not support moving forward.

Supervisor Steve Catalano of the Stanardsville District said he believed it was time for Greene to get going on implementing the plan that has been in the works.

“A secure, sustainable water supply is as essential to a locality as any service or any infrastructure that we provide,” Catalano said. “There’s so many elements to having a good, safe, sustainable water supply that we frankly don’t have right now. This is absolutely an economic development project. It’s the ultimate recruiting tool.”

A prepared resolution in the packet stated that Supervisors accept and approve “the implementation of the Water Supply and Treatment Project as presented by Herb White on June 24, 2025, including advancing updated design approvals, pursuing applicable funding opportunities, and initiating procurement and construction processes as necessary to execute the project scope.”

The vote was 4 to 1 with McGuigan voting no.

Before you go: This story was originally published in the July 1, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and then posted here on July 4. Town Crier Productions is a one-person operation that will hopefully expand. You can potentially help that by clicking through to here and learning about support options.