The Rivanna Rambler

October 16, 2008

The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, built in 1966, is continuing to silt in from upstream erosion.  The South Fork Rivanna Reservoir Task Force is examining the condition of the reservoir and is seeking public input regarding its uses and fate.

 

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This show originally aired on October 5, 2006 and as an encore on October 9, 2008  on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

Almost twice a month for the last couple of months, a small group of citizens and representatives of various stakeholders has been meeting to discuss the fate of the South Fork Ravenna Reservoir.  The members of this task force represent the variety of uses and benefits that the reservoir now affords this community.

Built in 1966 to augment the storage capacity at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, it now also provides miles of flatwater for varsity and community rowers.  Fishermen come from surrounding counties to launch jon boats at all times of day and night.  Novice canoeists learn their first skills on its calm dark waters.  The upper reaches of Ivy Creek consistently offer sightings of beaver, green and great blue herons, turtles, and, sometimes even bobcats.

The reservoir also provides an immutable kind of pleasure and solace that only an expanse of water can do – one that can be appreciated looking upstream or down while crossing its bridges, or for the fortunate few who live along its shores, from livings rooms and decks.  Out of sight – and out of the minds of most – is what lies beneath, the remains of a small but thriving African American community at Hydraulic Mills which was vacated and submerged when the waters rose after the dam construction.

The aesthetic, recreational, and ecological benefits were never the primary purpose of building this reservoir, but as the community contemplates its future, it is these very benefits that the Task Force has been asked to consider by the four chairs – two of them elected, Charlottesville’s Mayor, Dave Norris, and the Chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, Ken Boyd – and two appointed, the Chair of the Albemarle County Service Authority Board, Don Wagner, and the RWSA Board Chair, Mike Gaffney.

The Task Force has been asked to determine what would happen to the reservoir if nothing is done to maintain it … and to make recommendations about whether or not to maintain it– presumably by dredging.  And finally, if dredging is to be recommended, for what purpose?  Retain the ecologic benefits?  The recreational benefits?  The guidance was clear to the Task Force – With the approved water supply as a given, lets turn our attention to the South Fork Reservoir.

It may seem to some a no-brainer that, of course, we would maintain this piece of aging infrastructure – one that in the 1960s was actually designed for a useful life of only fifty years.  That’s the way it was done back then – and we are not alone in this community in grappling what to do now that hindsight has caught up with us and our infrastructure, including dams, now demand attention. And you’d think that dredging the South Fork should obviously become the centerpiece of any future water supply plan – but somehow, it didn’t in this last go around.  How could that be so?

There are a variety of reasons, some regulatory and some practical.  Foremost is the fact that simply dredging to the original volume will not get this community to the 50 year need, based on growth and water use predictions.  And there are other issues:  dredging requires permits from the Army Corp of Engineers, who carefully regulate all land-disturbing activity on river bottoms and who are especially watchful over the wetlands that provide multiple ecologic benefit. And the water supply plan must address other aspects of aging infrastructure that have been ignored by previous generations of leaders:  a 13-mile pipeline from Sugar Hollow to Ragged Mountain and another between Ragged Mountain and the O-Hill treatment plant that are aging and require replacement to name just a few of the components.  And there is the pesky problem of providing adequate in-stream flows to the Moormans. State officials and local activists agree:  headwater flows should be protected as best we can.

And, finally, the reservoir, once dredged, will continue to need this kind of maintenance, maybe yearly, maybe every five years – because the watershed it drains is unusually large for a reservoir this size – a watershed that has been prone to problems with sedimentation, as fine silt is scoured from high banks and makes its way downstream to form the shallows and islands that impede boaters on the reservoir. It is often said that a river is the report card of the land practices upstream and through which it travels.  One could say the same of the reservoir itself.

So what should we do with this reservoir now?  The Task Force does seek community input via survey that’s available online and at public hearing on Monday, October 27.  I know a lot of folks will be using this as an opportunity to demand that we revisit the approved water supply plan.  Maybe others will speak of its ecologic and recreational benefits.   For myself, I keep thinking about what life must have been like along this stretch of the river before the dam.  And I wonder, if I were able to think like a river, what would I want to have happen at the South Fork Ravenna Reservoir?