Water rate hike may pay for upgrades

Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents’ water and sewer bills would go up to fix aging infrastructure and pay for the area’s long-term water plan under rates the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority set Monday.

Part of Rivanna’s water rate, which now must be adopted by the City Council and the Albemarle County Service Authority, would go to the community’s 50-year, $142 million water supply plan, which would build a new dam at Ragged Mountain Reservoir and a new pipeline to fill it. Critics allege the plan is irresponsibly expensive and would unnecessarily flood acres of pristine forest.

In the city, the average monthly water bill would rise from $34.30 to $36.02. Wastewater bills would go from $30.86 to $33.43, meaning most residents’ total bill would jump by only a few dollars.

The biggest increase for city residents would be the sewer rate, which would jump 8.3 percent. City spokesman Ric Barrick said that most of the increase would go to repair aging infrastructure. In the next five years, the city plans to spend $26.7 million replacing and maintaining sewer lines and $18.7 million for water infrastructure.

County residents would see more of a hike, particularly in sewer rates, which would jump 29 percent. Under the county’s tiered billing system, which charges based on usage, the average user would see an $8.43 hike in combined sewer and water bills. The sewer bill would jump from $22.88 to $29.60, while water would go from $17.53 to $19.08.

RWSA is seeking to charge the city and county a little more than a 2 percent increase for water infrastructure, some of which would begin to pay for the new $32 million dam at Ragged Mountain. Betty Mooney, with Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, says the City Council should not allocate money to build the dam until it gets more information about dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, an option supported by some opponents of the water plan.

“I think it would be irresponsible of them to go forward,” Mooney said.

Gary Fern, the executive director of the Albemarle service authority, said one of the primary costs in the next fiscal year would be $1.3 million for designing a new wastewater pump station for northern Albemarle.

The pump center will serve the National Ground Intelligence Center, yet-to-be constructed homes in the North Pointe development and the University of Virginia’s North Fork Research Park. Other new projects include extending sewer lines into the Oak Hill area, which sits beyond Interstate 64 south of Charlottesville off Fifth Street Extended. Wastewa-ter systems in the area have failed, Fern said, and officials believe there may be sewage running into Moores Creek. That’s why sewer lines are being extended in the area, he said.

The Albemarle service authority is slated to take up the proposed rates Thursday, while the City Council will consider the matter June 2 and is expected to vote June 16.