The conversation about how Albemarle County and Charlottesville will get drinking water for the next 50 years — and at what cost — has heated up since an engineering firm hiked a cost estimate by tens of millions of dollars.

An engineering firm has nearly doubled the estimated cost of a dam at Ragged Mountain Reservoir, prompting officials to halt design work on a project intended to supply drinking water to the region for the next 50 years.

City councilors are poised to reaffirm their support tonight for the community’s 50-year water supply plan, potentially drawing to a close one of the Charlottesville area’s most heated policy debate in years.

Builders and developers — and ultimately homebuyers — will be shouldering a significantly heavier burden to pay for Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s water and sewer projects in the coming fiscal year.

John Martin says he’s seen it all before.
As criticism of Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s long-term water supply plan is now seeing once-united environmentalists pitted against one another, Martin says all the new arguments are actually old ones.

Momentum appears to be gaining for local leaders to reconsider Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s long-term water supply plan.