County updates water supply plan

Recent rainfall totals have kept emergency drought measures off the radar, but county officials are readying their state-required long-term water supply plan for future days of dry weather.
At the June 9 Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting, county officials got a review of projected water supply and demand, as well as shortage mitigation measures from Wiley and Wilson Project Manager Tim Wagner.
Orange County Administrator Bill Rolfe explained that the commonwealth requires all localities to develop a water supply plan, and then update it every five years.
"We are finally at the point that we feel assured we have everything in the plan that the [Department of Environmental Quality] wants and now it is time for [Orange County and the towns of Orange and Gordonsville] to hold public hearings on the plan and adopt the plan by resolution," Rolfe said.
Wagner explained the current municipal water supply plan, consists of reliance on the Rapidan River at two intakes-one for the Wilderness and Lake of the Woods areas, the other for the Town of Orange and the Rapidan Service Authority (which ultimately serves the Route 15 corridor down to the Town of Gordonsville). The remainder of county residents rely on private wells.
The problem, according to Wagner, occurs when river flow levels fall below water users' demand. Even in non-drought years, river flows typically decrease at the end of summer and beginning of fall. In coming years, predictable population growth which increases demand, and inevitable drought which decreases supply, could put the county at a 4.61 million gallon-per-day shortfall by 2050, according to Wagner.
But in a worst case scenario combination of high water demand and severe drought, usage could exceed capacity as soon as 2015.
"We aren't at that worst case situation but we aren't very far away from having to do something," Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Lee Frame said.
Alternatives to the present water supply system include an off-stream storage facility, increasing capacity at the Wilderness intake and developing potential groundwater supply zones.
Rolfe said the next phase of implementation of the water supply plan is expected to cost $430,000, which is already part of the county's budget. That Phase I work will include development of six sites as part of a groundwater study which will explore test wells' production.
The county's public hearing on the proposed plan will likely be in August or September, Rolfe said. After DEQ finds that the plan is in compliance with state regulation, and following a board of supervisors' resolution, the plan will eventually be incorporated into the capital improvements plan and the comprehensive plan.