Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority eyeing 2024 budget, new projects

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Rivanna Solid Waste Authority (RSWA) and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) are reviewing the budgets for next year.

Bill Mawyer is the executive director for both. He says RSWA’s total budget is more than $7 million, while RWSA’s reaches $48 million.

“That pays for us to transfer all of the refuse that Albemarle County residents create,” Mawyer said Tuesday, March 28.

Money is also going towards projects, like a new baling facility.

“This is a facility where we take all the recyclable products - either the paper and the plastics - and we have a big machine and we have to bale them before we ship them to a recycling reuse facility,” Mawyer said.

There are also multiple piping projects planned to help increase water capacity in the community.

“This goes back to the drought in 2002. The community put together a plan that we would build a pipe from the South Rivanna Reservoir over to the Ragged Mountain Reservoir and build a new dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir so that we can store more water at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir,” Mawyer said.

With inflation, both programs are requesting to increase fees and construction costs.

“Those fees have not been raised for four years, so with inflation and the cost of trucking and fuel we thought it was an appropriate time to raise the cost,” Mawyer said.

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