Still waters run deep at Jefferson’s university. According to Charlottesville Tomorrow, UVA’s annual water usage has increased by nearly 110 million gallons since 2005.
However, water usage at the school remains more than 140 million gallons below the peak annual usage of 672 million gallons in 1999. During the same year, per capita water usage worked out to 22,748 gallons per person, compared to 15,545 in fiscal year 2010. This despite a nearly 20-percent increase in UVA’s square footage and a 15-percent increase in the overall university population. Read more here.
The Charlottesville Tomorrow article points out that a recent paper by a member of the UVA Board of Visitors suggests a growth in the number of students at UVA may outpace the growth estimate given in engineering firm Gannett Fleming’s 2004 water demand analysis. In 2009, Gannett Fleming proposed a $72 million redesign of the Ragged Mountain dam; RWSA put out a request for proposals when further studies suggested a new dam could be built for "substantially" less.
