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Current Water Supply

Future Water Supply Plan

Citizen Concerns

Alternatives

What You Can Do

Commonly used acronyms:
RWSA = Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority
SFRR = South Fork Rivanna Reservoir
SHR = Sugar Hollow Reservoir
RMR = Ragged Mountain Reservoir
MGD = million gallons per day

Alternatives to the Current Water Supply Plan

Elements identified as important to our community:

• Stay within the Rivanna River watershed
• Least environmentally damaging solution
• Promote watershed protection
• Local collaboration
• Balanced and sustainable approach
• Restore in-stream flows to our waterways

The Goal: By the year 2055:

• 18.7 MGD of treated water.
• 2,200 MG of stored water.
• The capacity to treat 28 MGD.

What we have today:

• We have the capacity to treat 21.5 MGD per day at three water treatment plants (but use only 9-12 MGD)
• We have three reservoirs totaling 1,900 MG of stored water, with a watershed of 280 square miles enabling the reservoirs to refill quickly after a rain.

What the current 50-year plan proposes:

• Eliminate the SFRR with 1,100 MG as a water storage facility
• Reserve the SHR with 360 MG for drought, likely losing at least 25% in transfer to the Rivanna River
• Create one large reservoir of 2,000 MG, with a watershed of 2 square miles.
• Upgrade the three current water treatment plants to handle 28 MGD
• Take 18-40 MGD from one point in the South Fork of the Rivanna River
• Mitigation for the loss of 14,435 feet of streams and 3.5 acres of wetland, as required by law.

An Alternative scenario:

• Maintain the current capacity at SFRR, RMR, and the SHR = 1,900 MG. To do this: repair ($6M) rather than replace ($35M) the RMR dam. Enlist the help of a preservation/conservation firm to plan and implement environmental (maintenance) dredging of the SFRR.
• Initiate discussions to use the Shadwell quarry as a reservoir when mined out. The quarry is estimated to hold 3,000 MG of water, is immediately adjacent to the Rivanna River, and in a growth area. The use of a flood weir to fill only at times of high flow will help preserve flow in the Rivanna, dilute effluent from Moore's Creek and control flooding downstream.
• Upgrade the South Fork and North Fork water treatment plants to handle daily demand. This will enable the Observatory Hill water treatment plant, the SHR and the RMR to be decommissioned as the quarry comes online, restoring in stream flow to the Moorman's River. Plans are already underway to reconfigure the water distribution system to be accessed from any water treatment plant.*
• No mitigation required as no stream or wetlands are impacted.

This alternative satisfies the community's concerns as it:

• Stay within the Rivanna River watershed
• Is the least environmentally damaging solution. No mitigation is required as no streams or wetlands will be impacted. It saves the SFRR and the RMNA, two valuable community resources.
• Promotes watershed protection by re-focusing on the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir watershed
• Promotes local collaboration with a community-based private business
• Is a balanced and sustainable approach as it preserves resources and uses already degraded resources rather than destroying the natural resources preserved today.
• Increases stream flow to the Moormans River and protects the Rivanna River from excessive intake at the South Fork.

*Important note: from top of page 10 in the RWSA permit document
WTP = water treatment plant
"Normal Conditions
Water is normally plentiful in the RWSA raw water system, and the location and proportion of water production at each WTP is not critical. Finished water is typically produced at all three WTPs. There are hydraulic limitations in the distribution systems that influence the production proportions and therefore affect how the water is used within the system. Planned improvements in the transmission system will eventually remove these restrictions thus improving operational flexibility by allowing most or all of the finished water to be pumped into the distribution system from any location."

What You Can Do
Benefits of using the Shadwell quarry as a reservoir for the future

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