Snow can’t keep the water supply plan debate from rolling along. At the same time that the Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan (CSWP) planned to address the press on the release of a new Black & Veatch report, five local organizations came together today to support the 2006 community water supply plan. (The CSWP event was ultimately postponed due to icy road conditions.)
The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters of Charlottesville-Albemarle, the Nature Conservancy, the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and the Free Enterprise Forum "reaffirmed" their support for the 2006 community water plan. Approved in 2006, the plan—which calls for a new Ragged Mountain Dam—is an “elegant solution” to the community water needs, said Neil Williamson, executive director of the Free Enterprise Forum.
"Never before, in my time here, have I remembered a single issue where these five groups, representing civic, business and environmental interests, have all come together and spoken with one voice as we are on this issue," said Williamson.
The press conference comes one day after Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris called the new Black & Veatch report a “major breakthrough in the water debate,” and reiterated that phased construction of a Lower Ragged Mountain Dam on the existing structure is viable.
Much of the recent turmoil in local government was stirred by City Council’s support for an amended 2006 water plan, which called for maintenance dredging and an incremental dam build-up.
Although some of the organizations have previously made their views on the plan known, Tim Hulbert, president of the Chamber of Commerce, said he felt it was important to come together to declare support.
“There has been a pretty active effort to refute what we think is basically empirically sound evidence, [and] that the plan as approved and permitted is the way to go forward,” he said. He added that the conference was not a response to CSWP’s own advocacy.
According to Jeff Werner of PEC, the community praised the public process that ultimately brought the final plan to the localities. However, while Werner said the plan is widely supported and accepted by the community, he added that misinformation reported in the media has rendered such support silent.
“PEC has been involved in this for some time. We endorsed and supported the plan that was presented and, to date, no information that I have seen has offered a compelling reason for us to reconsider that position,” said Werner.
Also present was Nature Conservancy representative Bill Kittrell, newly appointed to the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA) board following John Martin’s abrupt resignation. He said his organization got involved in the water debate years ago for the purpose of finding ways to restore stream flows to the Rivanna River, among other things.
