Madison County leaders continue to seek documents and clarity from water and sewer provider Rapidan Service Authority (RSA).
In early December, county planning and zoning administrator Allen Nicholls told supervisors he’d been unable to obtain numerous documents from the authority which outline their policies and directly affect Madison County’s ability to manage growth, protect public health and plan responsibly for the future of the county’s water and sewer systems.
“As development pressures increase especially along the Rt. 29 corridor and in the town, we’re finding that critical information, policies and long-range planning tools either don’t exist, are outdated or are not publically available,” Nicholls said. “Without clarity on the service area system capacity or EDU allocation practices, neither the county, nor our residents can plan with confidence.”
EDUs, or Equivalent Dwelling Units, standardizes the volume and strength of wastewater from a typical single-family home. Utilities use EDUs to determine how much capacity a development needs within a treatment plant. For example, an apartment complex will need multiple EDUs while a single-family home needs only one. Nicholls said information regarding how EDUs are acquired is inconsistent with no reserve policy for protecting capacity for economic development, public health or aging drainfields.
Additionally, Nicholls said the county lacks hydraulic models meaning available capacity can’t readily be determined and service boundaries need to be established to reflect the goals of the county’s comprehensive plan.
“These issues are not operational details, they are the backbone of how Madison County will grow,” he said. “The concern is when these gaps persist, the consequences fall on the county. Without clear policies, RSA decisions can inadvertently shape land use and development, something that should remain in the hands of the elected governing body.”
Nicholls said attempts to obtain the information, which he calls basic, along with maps, capacity data, EDU records and policies has been unfruitful. A formal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was filed Nov. 24. Nicholls said he received a response within five days requesting seven additional days, but no actual documents had been received.
On Dec. 18, county staff and RSA board members and staff met to address the issues. Nicholls said that meeting facilitated “direct dialogue on growth expectations, system limitations and planning coordination” and while “several longstanding gaps were acknowledged,” they weren’t fully addressed. He said RSA confirmed that formal service area maps don’t exist and much of the infrastructure documentation is limited. He said RSA is willing to collaborate on the refinement of the service area but infrastructure construction requires developer participation.
“It was a very good discussion,” Nicholls said. “We talked about a range of things. Some of their policies which are probably antiquated need to be brought to today’s standards.”
Nicholls said the EDU policy was also discussed.
“This is an issue that directly impacts the land development of the county,” he said. “With the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant slated for completion in 2027, [we’ll] have the capacity equivalent of 400 EDUs. There’s a lot of folks who know this is coming. It would be easy for a developer of homes to come in, submit a site plan of areas zoned R-1, R-2 and R-3 and could conceivably use every bit of this new capacity.”
Nicholls said part of the meeting was to explore if RSA would adopt a policy regulating how capacity would be designated. A rough list created by the county would reserve some EDUs for the town, some for what is a growing utility issue in the resettlement area and some for emergencies should someone’s system fail. Others would be reserved for non-residential use so a business locating within the county would have access to basic public utilities.
“The reaction was polite, but RSA has let us know there are some objections to holding capacity,” Nicholls said. RSA officials have said they need to sell the EDUs in order to fund the plant improvement project.
“It’s a fair argument,” Nicholls said, stating however that it doesn’t really serve the community interest at large.
Approximately 95 sewer EDUs sold in the county have remained unused, some for as long as nearly two decades. County administrator Jonathon Weakley said RSA indicated interest in charging a fee for unused EDUs or exploring sunset provisions. He said RSA staff mentioned not wanting to have separate policies for Orange and Madison.
“We want to tighten it up so the EDUs don’t get gobbled up by a certain sector,” Weakley said. “If they do, we’re right back where we are today.”
County officials have long said that development in the area, especially along the Rt. 29 corridor, is constrained by an inability to connect to public water and sewer. The expansion of the wastewater treatment plant and increased capacity lessens that burden.
County attorney Sean Gregg said one option may be to have the county’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) purchase a percentage of EDUs, giving RSA a way to recover some of its upfront capital costs while also giving the county some control.
“It seems to me that might be a work-around,” he said.
Other issues Nicholls mentioned remain unresolved include the formal adoption of service area maps, completion of hydraulic modeling, improved transparency through the publishing of RSA policies and procedures and integration of GIS-based parcel data for long-term planning and grant applications.
He said since the December meeting, RSA has requested information on parcels within proposed or secondary service areas that could benefit from public water or sewer, particularly where issues of failing wells or septic systems could be addressed.
Nicholls would like an additional meeting to be scheduled with RSA. Weakley suggested that supervisors come back at the next board meeting with recommendations for their RSA representatives to request from the RSA board of members.
