Since 1973 the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) has been responsible for providing a safe and dependable water supply to its customers in the City of Charlottesville and surrounding Albermarle County. The current RWSA Urban Area source water system evaluated in this study includes South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, Sugar Hollow Reservoir, the Ragged Mountain Reservoirs, and a river intake on the North Fork Rivanna River. Other source water facilities that are currently not a part of the Urban Area system but are owned and operated by the RWSA include Beaver Creek Reservoir and Totier Creek Reservoir.

The safe yield available from the RWSA Urban Area source water system is diminishing with time from significant loss of storage capacity primarily due to sedimentation at South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. Loss of reservoir storage capacity has also occurred in Sugar Hollow Reservoir due to a landslide in 1995. At the same time, demand analyses by others have determined that the raw water demand by RWSA Urban Area customers began to exceed the available safe yield of the Urban Area system in 2000 (VHB, 2001).

Because of growing demands for potable water, the loss of reservoir storage from sedimentation, the rapid development occurring in the region, and the occurrence of a potential drought of record in 2002, the RWSA Board of Directors commissioned Gannett Fleming, Inc. to perform a safe yield analysis of the RWSA Urban Area system. This analysis is intended to aid in re-evaluating the appropriateness of the current improvement program in the wake of the recent severe 2002 drought. In addition, Gannett Fleming, Inc. was requested to evaluate water supply expansion options currently under consideration including the reactivation of an existing pumping station on Mechums River, increasing the storage capacity of South Fork Rivanna Reservoir by raising the pool level with spillway crest gates and dredging sediment deposits from South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

Since the RWSA Urban Area water supply system is a complex system consisting of four reservoirs and one river intake, development of a unique model which simulates system operating rules was required in order to apply mass balance techniques to determine the safe yield. For this study the Virginia State Water Control Board’s definition of safe yield for a complex intake (impoundments in conjunction with streams) was adopted which states:

"The safe yield is defined as the maximum withdrawal rate available to withstand the worst drought of record in Virginia since 1930. If actual gauge records are not available, correlation is to be made with a similar watershed and numbers synthesized in order to develop the report."