Buck Mountain reservoir should be resurrected

Paul A. Shoop Albemarle County
Published: June 22, 2008

While being challenged by the energy crisis, we focus our water needs on an energy-intensive solution.

A raised Ragged Mountain dam, never filling from its own watershed but rather with water pumped from the South Rivanna Reservoir, burdens future generations to provide energy for that pumping operation.

Since the Buck Mountain reservoir site was selected in the 1980s, studies have been repeated as characters involved in the decision changed.

The James River as a water source was rejected in the 1970s due to cost and water-quality issues.

Dredging was studied in the ’80s; the reservoir would have to be “dewatered,” silt dredged up would have to be transported and disposed of, and the silt would contain stumps, trees and debris — all of which made the proposal cost-prohibitive. South Rivanna created a habitat for a variety of wildlife within the reservoir and wetlands along its banks, raising concerns about the environmental impact to those ecosystems during dredging.

Buck Mountain was rejected in part due to the presence of the endangered James River spinymussel. But in the 1980s a Virginia Tech consultant found shells but no viable populations, and muskrats present as their No. 1 predator. If viable populations remain, they could be translocated to protect their survival.

Buck Mountain gives us an opportunity to be the best stewards of our watershed with gravity flow to the community. A voluntarily high minimum in-stream release would ensure the health of the Moormans, Mechums and Rivanna rivers during a drought.

But pumping to Ragged Mountain will starve water from the Rivanna between the dam and Woolen Mills.

In 2003 the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s consultant and attorney debated why the South Rivanna Reservoir was ever built. Future generations will revisit our Ragged Mountain decision and debate why such an energy-intensive solution was ever built.

I have read 26 years of consultants’ reports. The right decision is to construct Buck Mountain Reservoir, replant riparian buffers, construct gabions along the Mechums, create forebays near the reservoir, and provide maintenance dredging at select areas.

I do not believe that getting the required permits for these options is an insurmountable hurdle. 

My one career regret, as former chief engineer and director of engineering at the RWSA, is not building Buck Mountain when we had the community’s support and the right decision had been made.