Lead in Drinking Water
A joint statement by the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA), the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA), and the City of Charlottesville (City) Drinking water has recently been the topic in the national and local news. We wish to assure our customers and the community that RWSA, ACSA, and the City are committed to providing safe, high-quality water. Protecting public health is a core part of what we do, and so we work closely with each other, the Virginia Department of Health, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and even national research foundations. We have an...
Read MoreAn artist’s look at wastewater
A couple of weeks ago a few of us from the Rivanna crew attended the Second Street Gallery exhibit on Sustainability to see the film “Wastewater” by Jason Robinson. Of course, we were interested in the entire exhibit, but most intrigued by Jason’s film in which the headline star was none other than the substance we handle every day 24/7: wastewater! Victoria Fort, one of our civil engineers, had heard about the exhibit from a friend who jokingly said, “You work at the poop plant… This is right up your alley!” And gave her a copy of the Cville Weekly article. We prefer the term Advanced Water...
Read MoreRivanna accepts ACECVA Engineering Honor Award tonight!
Michelle Simpson, Senior Civil Engineer, and Tom Frederick, Executive Director, are headed down to Richmond for the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia Award Gala at the Jefferson Hotel. With the help of our engineers, Greeley and Hansen replaced a 60-year-old sewer interceptor. The Meadow Creek Interceptor, originally installed in the 1950’s, had significantly deteriorated over time causing occasional sewage contamination of Meadow Creek. The project faced an array of challenges and obstacles, including excavation and construction in close proximity to neighborhoods,...
Read MoreProtecting our Watershed
As the City continues their bio-blitz study of the Ragged Mountain Dam area and citizens weigh in on whether runners, bikers, and dogs should be allowed there, we thought it would be a perfect time to share our perspective on responsible stewardship of the reservoirs. Our charge As a water provider our charge is two-fold: public health and environmental stewardship. We provide an adequate, safe, drinking water to our community and then treat the wastewater so that it can safely return back to the environment downstream of the Charlottesville area. We are fortunate We ( now I mean Rivanna and...
Read MoreFirst week of composting declared a success!
Charlottesville and Albemarle residents are all abuzz over the expanded composting services in the community. In the first week of the new program, Rivanna’s McIntire Recycling Center collected 150 lbs of food waste and household compostables in five days! NOPE, our pick-up hauler, also reported that only one item was found in the bins that was not allowable and that was a plastic bag. We urge everyone to remember to use compostable bags. The 3-gallon compostable bags (“Biobag” is the brand name) can be found at the following local retailers: Whole Foods Kroger Bed, Bath...
Read MoreRWSA Will Rebid the Odor Control Project
We were looking forward to the selection of our contractor this month for the odor control project. Unfortunately all of the bids came in significantly over budget. In the interest of fiscal prudence, the Rivanna engineering team decided to conduct some value engineering and then rebid this project. Value engineering is a process by which engineers look at the scope and determine the most efficient design possibly without compromising the integrity of the project. This will delay our timeline by two months so we would be looking at a bid award at the March 22nd RWSA board meeting. We...
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