It’s been 20 years since a study recommended a reservoir be constructed in Orange County to supply the community with water and facilitate the disposition of sewage, but to date the county continues to rely on a run-of-the-river system. That is, the Rapidan River itself remains the primary source of water for the county.
And it isn’t working.
The current infrastructure is aging, and the cost of repairs is estimated to run tens of millions of dollars. A reservoir remains the end goal for many, but how to pay for it and where to put it are questions that remain unanswered. And the population of the county continues to grow, stressing the water system now in place.
Orange County supervisors, Rapidan Service Authority officials and residents of the Lake of the Woods community met July 30 at the Lake of the Woods Clubhouse to discuss the myriad matters plaguing the water system.
At Lake of the Woods, a 2,600-acre gated subdivision surrounding a 500-acre man-made lake in far-east Orange County, sewage seeps into landscaped lawns so regularly that Rapidan Service Authority linemen know residents on a first-name basis.
One resident who lives on the Germanna side of the area said sewage has overflowed into her property 30 times in three years. Rapidan Service Authority workers have nicknamed her residence the "s–t house."
Rapidan Service Authority General Manager Tim Clemmons said no one’s home should have that sort of reputation, but the pipes that were run out to the development back in 1969 use an archaic vacuum pump system and such overflow can be a result. Being further away from the start of the vacuum pump means more sewage buildup and overflow rise into properties at the end of the line, he said.
Clemmons laid out the costs for repairing or completely overhauling Lake of the Woods pipes.
The costs to move existing sewage pipes from a vacuum system to a conventional system reach $113 million. Patching the current system and modernizing the infrastructure costs less at $85 million, but it would be a short-term solution for a long-term need, he said. Any pinprick or line issue could cause the whole vacuum system to clog, seep out or run over into yards leading Clemmons to remind residents, "Things run downhill like sewage sometimes."
Along with outdated lines, the authority is limited by outdated technology.
The majority of Rapidan Service Authority water and sewer line records are still on paper, and it’s up to the authority to digitize those records in order to keep up with the growing demands of the county, which now hosts 37,991 residents — 93% more than when the authority was founded in 1969.
The public at the July 30 meeting also expressed concern that Gov. Glenn Youngkin could force Lake of the Woods water to be released to greater Orange County and surrounding areas to help mitigate the ongoing drought.
Clemmons acknowledged that this could always be a possibility in the future, but there is no way to get water from Lake of the Woods to the Rapidan Service Authority’s water treatment plant, nor any way to hold the water due to using a run-of-the-river plant — not without a reservoir.
Orange County supervisors Bryan Nicol and Crystal Hale, both at the meeting, said it is time to construct a reservoir. And yet still, nobody seems clear how to get there.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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