Crozet's Only Water Supply Is Getting Rebuilt. The Board of Supervisors Votes Wednesday.

I’m testing something with this post. I put the documents that I’ve posted at the end of this story into Claude and asked for a summary. I’m not sold on this, but wanted to give it a shot; there’s a ton of information in the packet and supporting documents, and I’d like to think that summarizing the Board of Supervisors upcoming agenda regarding the Beaver Creek Reservoir project.

If you drink water in Crozet, it comes from one place: Beaver Creek Reservoir. Everything on the Board of Supervisors’ agenda this Wednesday follows from that fact.

The hearing: Wednesday, September 16, 6:00 p.m., Lane Auditorium, 401 McIntire Road. Item SP-2026-00005, Beaver Creek Pump Station Fill in the Floodplain.

What’s actually being decided

Almost nothing.

The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is building a new raw water pump station on the county-owned parcel at 4365 Beaver Creek Park. The site is steep — grades of 20% to 50% — so the design needs stepped retaining walls, and the bottom of those walls dips into the 100-year floodplain. That requires a special use permit for roughly 450 cubic yards of fill.

Four hundred fifty cubic yards is about 45 dump truck loads. The applicant’s engineers modeled the 100-year storm and certified that the fill produces no measurable rise in flood elevation. County staff identified no concerns. The Planning Commission recommended approval 6-0 on August 11. Nobody from the public spoke. The required community meeting was waived.

So the permit is a formality. The project behind it is not.

Why the pump station has to move

The existing pump station sits below the dam. In 2011, a dam-breach analysis and updated state regulations bumped Beaver Creek Dam from “significant hazard” to “high hazard.” That reclassification requires a bigger spillway. A bigger spillway means the pump station can’t stay where it is.

At the same time, demand kept climbing. RWSA produced about 124 million gallons for Crozet in 2007. In 2025 it was about 235 million — nearly double in eighteen years.

The 2019 plan that drives all of this

In June 2019, RWSA completed the Crozet Area Drinking Water Infrastructure Plan. It projects that the system will need to deliver up to 1.85 million gallons per day by 2040 and 2.54 mgd by 2075.

Today’s pump station draws about 1.0 mgd. The new one is designed to convey up to 2.80 mgd to the Crozet treatment plant — plus release up to 2.0 mgd back into Beaver Creek downstream, a condition of the water withdrawal permit DEQ issued in December 2024.

In other words: the county is sizing Crozet’s water supply for the Crozet of 2075.

What you’ll notice

A new intake tunneled under the reservoir, and a new pump station building on the south shore.
A replacement transmission main to the treatment plant, installed along Old Three Notch’d Road and Three Notch’d Road — expect lane closures.
Closures during construction of the parking lot off Browns Gap Turnpike, the southern end of the reservoir, and the auxiliary spillway staging area. Henley Hornets Trail gets rerouted and rebuilt.
A destratification system — essentially an aerator on the reservoir bottom — meant to cut the algae blooms and taste-and-odor problems that come with seasonal turnover.
After the pump station is in service, the dam spillway reconstruction starts.

A question worth asking

At the Planning Commission, Lonnie Murray asked whether RWSA would mitigate the stream-buffer impact. Staff and the County Engineer said no mitigation plan is required — public facilities are exempt. Murray said he was concerned the public might see the county holding itself to a different standard than it holds private applicants.

Nobody answered that. It’s a fair thing to raise Wednesday.

Timeline

1964 — Beaver Creek Dam and Reservoir completed. (RWSA’s project manager told the Planning Commission 1963.)
1966 — Crozet Water Treatment Plant built, about 1 mgd.
2011 — Dam-breach analysis and state regulation changes reclassify the dam as high hazard.
June 2019 — Crozet Area Drinking Water Infrastructure Plan sets the 2040 and 2075 targets.
2021 — Treatment plant upgraded.
December 2024 — DEQ issues the water withdrawal permit.
August 2025 — Site plan submitted; retaining wall revisions trigger the floodplain permit.
August 11, 2026 — Planning Commission recommends approval, 6-0.
September 16, 2026 — Board of Supervisors public hearing.