City demands examination of dredging

Charlottesville city councilors on Tuesday demanded that local water officials study the cost and feasibility of dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

“I hate to say it, but we hold all of the cards,” said Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris. The area’s long-term water supply plan “will not move forward without the city’s support. And that’s not a threat, that’s just the reality.”

The comments came after a 13-member task force presented its long-awaited report on maintaining the South Fork reservoir to the City Council, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the boards of directors of the Albemarle County Service Authority and the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority.

The report details benefits of dredging the reservoir to remove sediment that has built up for decades. However, the report falls short of recommending dredging, suggesting instead how officials can decide for themselves whether “selective dredging” should be in Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s playbook.

City leaders, however, said they need more information before they can decide whether to dredge and, if so, what the scope of the project should be.

“I’d just like to know how much it would cost,” Councilor Julian Taliaferro said.

Norris agreed.

“We owe it to our taxpayers and rate-payers to make sure that we represent them in the most environmentally friendly and economic way,” he said. “I think what everybody’s saying is we need better information. We need to know what the alternatives are and we need to move forward.”

But some local officials, including members of the Albemarle County Service Authority, have questioned whether it would be worth spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a dredging study when officials have already approved a plan meant to meet the area’s water-supply demands.

Liz Palmer, a member of the Albemarle County Service Authority’s board of directors, said the possibility of dredging previously was rejected because it failed to provide a sufficient long-term water supply.

“Dredging was not taken off of the table because of the cost,” she said.

However, David Slutzky, chairman of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, said dredging is a separate issue from the area’s future water needs. “I’m convinced that we need to move forward with the water-supply plan,” he said.

The cost of the study, he said, would be “fairly humble” in comparison with the cost of the water-supply plan. The water plan, approved in 2006, was initially estimated to top $142.8 million, though officials have since said unexpected obstacles have pushed the price tag upward significantly.

The task force was charged with determining the benefits of dredging, yet was also instructed not to reassess the long-term water plan. The plan would pipe water from the South Fork Reservoir to the Ragged Mountain Reservoir after a higher dam is built at Ragged Mountain.

According to the task force’s report, dredging could widen travel lanes for rowers, provide other recreational benefits and increase the water supply both in the short-term — while workers construct a new dam at Ragged Mountain — and far into the future.

However, Councilor David Brown dismissed the idea of giving weight to recreational benefits when considering whether to dredge, saying that officials should instead focus on the value of supplying additional drinking water.

“I don’t think water users should pay for rowing. I don’t think water users should pay for fishing,” Brown said.

The RWSA last summer drew up a proposal to seek bids for a dredging study. Now that the task force has finished its work, the body can again take up that proposal.

The City Council’s backing of the study likely will carry significant weight as the RWSA considers its next step.

No date has been set for the RWSA to vote on the matter.