"For supporters of Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s long-term water supply plan, the last two days have been good ones.

On Monday, the Charlottesville City Council unanimously backed the $142 million plan that would build a new dam at Ragged Mountain and a pipeline to fill it, providing increased storage from 464 million gallons to 2.19 billion. On Tuesday, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority received a blessing from the federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, allowing officials to move forward.

But both the City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors are interested in looking into dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

Supervisors and councilors have said that dredging alone likely won’t provide for the community’s long-term water needs but they want to find out more about its feasibility for maintenance purposes or as a supplement to the plan.

Critics say dredging provides a better alternative to the adopted community water supply plan because the current plan would submerge acres of pristine forest and trails, and is too expensive, they say.

But RWSA officials said in a statement that the federal government’s stamp of approval means that the project has been fully vetted. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has already bestowed a similar blessing.

The Corps’ permit means that local officials have chosen the “least environmentally damaging, practicable alternative,” according to federal guidelines.

“Local citizens have been talking about the need for expanded water supply for about 30 years, yet not until this moment have we had the complete approval of both the federal and state governments to move forward with actually building the infrastructure we need,” said Mike Gaffney, chairman of the RWSA’s board of directors.

Supervisors said Tuesday that they continue to support looking into dredging and how it would affect the community water supply plan, if at all. City councilors said Monday that they wanted the county’s support at looking at the option.

It appears they have it, supervisors said.

Board Chairman Kenneth C. Boyd said he would likely tell county staff at today’s meeting to come back with more information on what it would mean to dredge the South Fork.

“Because we’ve had informal discussions about it, we’d like to move forward with at least some information on maintenance dredging,” Boyd said. He’s not sure, though, whether he would support funding a feasibility study or how the board should go about getting more information.

Supervisors and councilors have said that dredging may provide a way to build a smaller dam at Ragged Mountain, depending on how much water supply can be gained by dredging. Thomas L. Frederick Jr., the executive director of the RWSA, said that if the height of the dam were changed, it could require a whole new permitting process.

“If the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority were to be directed to change [the current] plan, it could require changes to the permits,” Frederick said. “That’s something that would have to be determined at the time.”

Supervisors already reiterated their unanimous support for the current plan at their May 14 meeting." (Jeremy Borden, The Daily Progress, June 5, 2008)