Rockbridge County has similar issues with sewer lines. Melissa Alexander, executive director of the Rockbridge County Public Service Authority, said it’s a “constant battle.”
The biggest problem is managing what government officials call “inflow and infiltration.” That occurs when groundwater and storm run-off can find their way into decaying pipes. When that happens, it causes stress on the wastewater treatment plant, which can’t deal with the volume.
The MSA’s wastewater plant is designed to treat roughly 3 million gallons of wastewater a day. When there is overflow into the pipe, the plant is forced to process between 6 million and 11 million gallons. Combs, the MSA director, said such a situation creates a risk of water spilling into the river that does not meet the Department of Environmental Quality’s standards. The increased volume also strains the plant, causing equipment to wear out quickly, Combs said.
Buena Vista spent $365,366 in fiscal year 2024 on repairing sewage pipes. Lexington budgeted $103,000 in fiscal year 2024 for repairing stormwater leaks.
Rockbridge County did not allocate any money to repairing sewage pipes in fiscal year 2024. But it did budget over $100,000 for stormwater management for fiscal year 2024.
The county also budgeted $250,000 to continue paying off a $14.7 million loan from the Virginia Resource Authority. The 2005 loan was used to build a sewage line from the MSA plant to Raphine.
In Lexington, the sewage pipes that were installed before 1930 snake through the heart of downtown. The pipes that serve the Virginia Military Institute date back to the 1920s.
Officials say they are fighting a losing battle by chasing and plugging leaks.
“I mean you got to drop everything basically to go out there and make a repair. You know, sometimes customers are without water, which isn’t convenient for them,” Alexander said.
Of the three jurisdictions, BV is closest to implementing a plan to upgrade its wastewater treatment facility. Tyree, the city manager, estimates it will cost $20 million to $25 million.
Tyree said the city wants to use a combination of loans and grants to pay for it. He said the city is pursuing a loan of $4 million to $6 million from the USDA. BV is also seeking a $2 million grant from the USDA. The city manager said the state DEQ has approved a grant that he hopes will be for “several million dollars.”
“We really believe we can get there,” Tyree said. “We’ve got the delegates working with us. We’ve got the senators, congressmen, we’ve got everybody on board.”
A decade ago, BV would’ve had a hard time qualifying for financial help. The city built a golf course in 2005 and walked away from a $9.2 million loan, refusing to make payments. ACA Financial, which insured the bond, sued the city and threatened to take BV’s city hall and police station, which the city had put up as collateral. The city and ACA Financial reached a settlement that cleared BV of its debt in 2022.
Officials in Lexington and Rockbridge County said they know it’s going to cost millions to upgrade the MSA’s aging water and wastewater treatment plants.
The MSA is a wholesaler of fresh water and wastewater services to Lexington and Rockbridge County. The two jurisdictions in turn sell the services to residents at a markup.
Aligood said it’s estimated that it will cost $32 million to upgrade the water treatment facilities and $58 million to modernize the wastewater plant. The county and city would share the cost for both, depending on usage, he said.
“Before we had any estimates, we were thinking we might be able to fix all this in one go. We obviously deluded ourselves.”
CHARLES ALIGOOD
“Ideally, you could pay for it by only raising rates,” Aligood said. “But the amount of dollars involved would result in prohibitive rates. Raising water and sewer rates from a political view is better than raising property taxes.”
Aligood said the city also will try to obtain loans and apply for grants to help pay for the projects. But the cost of upgrading the water treatment plan alone would need to be spread out over three phases of five years each.
“Before we had any estimates, we were thinking we might be able to fix all this in one go,” he said. “We obviously deluded ourselves.”
Aligood said estimates are just estimates. Lexington has not asked developers to submit bids, and it’s hard to know how much it will cost.
“The experience locally is that the estimates have been low, substantially low,” he said.
Aligood cited the Waddell Elementary school project’s initial estimate was $8 million and ended up costing closer to $14 million.
“We don’t know what is going to happen,” he said. “That is frightening when you have projects that are currently estimated at $90 million.”