When City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents head to the polls next Tuesday to elect candidates for local government positions, one of the most important questions they will have to consider is what approach the region should take to its 50-year community water supply plan. Even though some would consider this to be merely a subject of concern for residents, the fact is that the water supply plan also matters greatly to the future of the University. Thus, students should take an interest in this debate and vote for candidates who support water supply policies that take into account the unavoidable reality of the University's growth trajectory.
Already the City's leading water consumer, the University will be expanding both its student and staff populations, as well as its physical footprint, in the coming years. This is related to outside pressure to increase the number of degrees it confers, a goal established by state policymakers in the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011. As the student body grows, the University will have to construct additional housing, dining and academic facilities to serve it.
The early effects of this process can be witnessed in the ongoing construction at the Alderman Road dormitories, as well as the renovations to Newcomb Hall and Cabell Hall. Each of these projects will provide students with the space and resources they need for a quality university experience, but they will bring about attendant increases in water usage. For example, each of the new Alderman Road dormitories will be air conditioned, which means they will consume significantly more water than the existing buildings.
The University's anticipation of future growth also has to do with the rapid expansion of the health care sector, which has continued to add jobs at a fairly steady clip despite the nation's ongoing economic malaise. Since the University Medical Center is one of the largest health care hubs in the state, it can be expected that additional facilities like the recently opened Emily Couric Cancer Center will continue to be built in the future. These facilities will need to be supplied with water, however, and the jobs they create will cause more people to move to the region and increase residential water usage.
Fortunately, a plan has emerged that addresses the University's water needs and has attracted the support of several candidates for Charlottesville City Council and all candidates for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. It involves constructing a new earthen dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, which will raise the water level there by 30 feet and increase the region's water supply by 1.1 billion gallons. The entire plan, which also includes a new pipeline and improved water treatment facilities, will cost roughly $140 million and entail the loss of several acres worth of natural wetlands. Yet if it is undertaken now while construction costs are low and there is no immediate water crisis, local officials can save taxpayer dollars and implement well thought-out environmental mitigation plans.
The University, for its part, should continue its water conservation efforts in recognition of the fact that it cannot lay claim to an unlimited amount of the community's water. Students, meanwhile, must become educated about this matter since it will have direct bearing upon their successors at the University. Even beyond next week's election, this issue offers current students the rare opportunity to influence local policy decisions that will determine quality of life at the University for decades into the future.
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