County antes up for water and sewer

The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors wants to buy 200 water and sewer taps from the town of Culpeper and it's showing Council the money.

The town utility stands to gain $3.3 million in the total transaction. The county has already put 10 percent - or $330,000 - down and says it would pay the balance by Aug. 15.

But will Town Council accept the first installment - a check hand-delivered with a letter to town hall July 6 - or is the town water and sewer system all tapped out-

Town Councilman Chip Coleman, filling in for Councilman Steve Jenkins at Tuesday's water and sewer committee meeting, felt the town should cash the check and provide the service.
"Right now, we're not being truthful when we say we don't have capacity," he said. "That, to me, is BS."

The question of how much capacity is available - now and in the future - is one that the town water and sewer committee wants staff to answer. In the meantime, the committee recommended at Tuesday's meeting that the town hold off on cashing the check for 60 days.

Another question under consideration is whether the town should indefinitely reserve its water and sewer capacity for projects that haven't started and never may- Such town-approved commitments are tying up more than 2 million gallons per day of capacity, but the town has yet to see most of the money associated with the future tap connections.

At the same time, other prospective customers, like the county, stand ready to pay for the service today.

Still, said Town Manager Brannon Godfrey, if the capacity is already committed, the town can't just arbitrarily reassign it elsewhere without facing possible legal repercussions.

Above all, he said, the town should reserve ample capacity for town customers.

Among the county customers the town has committed to serve with water and sewer are Terremark, Eastern View High School, Three Flags, Cannon Crossing and Northridge.

But just how much can the town system handle-

The town sewer treatment plant was recently upgraded to 4 million gallons per day, and the facility is currently treating about 2.5 mgd, but it's a lower than average flow because of low rainfall.

Concurrently, Lake Pelham, the town reservoir, can produce up to 3.7 mgd, but water customers only consume about 2.7 mgd. In other words, there's about one million gallons per day of unused capacity in both systems, not counting future commitments.

In addition, the wastewater plant will gain another 2 mgd of capacity by late 2010, bringing it up to a 6-mgd facility. Town Council approved the $27 million upgrade last month.

If the town is going to spend all that money to double the size of its former plant, Coleman said, then why not serve the areas around its borders- There's a risk in doing that, Godfrey said, because of the unpredictability of the housing market.

"We'd be double dipping," he said of enacting new commitments in place of existing ones.

One such existing commitment is to the county of Culpeper. Per the 2003 water and sewer agreement, the town agreed to reserve, if available, 600,000-gpd of water and sewer capacity (or 3,120 taps) for the county to resell as it sees fit.

It was this agreement that Culpeper County Board of Supervisors Chairman John Coates referenced in the July 6 letter to Mayor Pranas Rimeikis.

Coates also brought up the issue of reserving capacity without payment.

"A founding principle of the (2003 agreement) establishes that is not financially feasible that the town be required to guarantee capacity unless that capacity has been purchased," he said in his letter.

Coates added, "The county understands that the reserving of capacity that has not been purchased puts a strain on the capital expenditures for the town's systems."

That's why his board unanimously agreed to make the $330,000 payment, he said.

And the town should take it to help pay for its water and sewer system, said Coleman.

"We have this list of projects that may or may not happen," he said. "To reserve all this capacity for some list that hasn't put up any money doesn't make any sense to me."

Harry Hughes, town director of environmental services, saw some merit in that argument.

"Can we make our commitment on a cash basis like Chip is saying-" he said. "Bring your money in and we'll reserve it."
Councilman Mike Olinger, chairman of the water and sewer committee, seemed to agree.

"They need to ante up some money," he said.

In the end, the committee agreed that the issue needed further study.

Staff agreed to investigate legal implications and to report back to the committee in two months with a concrete definition of "excess capacity."

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or