Fluvanna board OKs joint water plan

PALMYRA — Fluvanna County’s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday approved forming a joint water authority with Louisa County over the objections of many local residents who wanted the issue to go to a public referendum.

The county board voted 4-2 to approve the James River Water Authority, which will have the power to design, fund and build infrastructure necessary to pull water from the James River, treat it for drinking and pipe it through Fluvanna and into Louisa County.

Supervisors Donald Weaver and Gene Ott cast the dissenting votes. There was little discussion of the matter among the board members prior to the vote.

County residents, however, presented more than 2,000 signatures on a petition asking for a November referendum on the controversial proposal.

The petition replaced one rejected by the board at a public hearing in March. That petition was denied because it did not meet state law requirements.

“We’re not saying we don’t need water, or that we don’t want it,” Leroy McCampbell told the board. “What we are saying, what we are asking for with the petition, is to vote on whether we want an authority.”

More than 50 residents showed up to discuss the proposal Wednesday. Although most appeared opposed to the joint authority, others said expediency, and the county’s growing need for water, made the authority prudent.

“I think we need to understand that this opportunity is not eternal in nature,” said Chad Brown, of Lake Monticello.

Many county residents opposed the authority, worrying that it would have too much power. Others worried that the costs of water projects would be too much for local residents to bear, especially in a down economy.

Louisa County’s Board of Supervisors approved the authority April 6 in a unanimous vote. The two counties agreed in 2003 to study a method of bringing water from the James River into both counties to support residential and commercial growth, especially in the Zion Crossroads area, a burgeoning commercial center that straddles both counties.

The project is projected to cost between $45 million and $50 million, which would be split evenly between the counties. The counties’ supervisors would be responsible for approving the financing for their respective halves of the project.

Approximately 3 million to 6 million gallons per day of drinking water could be provided through the project, official estimates indicate.

According to preliminary designs completed by Timmons Group, the proposed pipeline from the James River would pull in water from an existing Dominion Virginia Power intake structure. River water would flow through an existing Tenaska-owned waterline already in place in the southern half of Fluvanna County to a new water treatment plant to be constructed in the Pleasant Grove area.

According to the proposed alignment, the treated water for drinking would then cross the county toward Zion Crossroads, with a tie-in to the existing water system near Lake Monticello and supplies to Fork Union. Three options for the final pipeline’s route at the northern end of Fluvanna are proposed to connect to Louisa County Water Authority lines in place near the intersection of U.S. 250 and U.S. 15.

The authority would have the power to “acquire, purchase, finance, construct, reconstruct, operate, and maintain facilities for developing a bulk or wholesale supply of potable water,” the proposed resolution states.

That gives the proposed agency authority to construct “water intakes, reservoirs, filtration and purification plants, pumping stations, transmission lines, and storage facilities … deemed necessary and convenient.”

Such power, officials say, is necessary for the agency to do its job properly.

It’s that authority, however, that bothers many who signed the petition calling for a public referendum.