Culpeper County Supervisors Must Decide on Public-Private Utilities

By Donnie Johnston, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

Jun. 4–Angler Development began its final push yesterday to persuade Culpeper supervisors to enter into a water-sewer agreement that would preserve the county’s 2.5 million gallons-a-day wastewater treatment allocation.

Steve Vento, executive vice president of the Warrenton company, told supervisors a comprehensive agreement would be in county hands by the end of today.

And he stressed that to meet a 2010 Virginia Department of Environmental Quality deadline to have a wastewater-treatment plant on Mountain Run in operation, the county must make a decision on the public-private partnership by the end of next month. If the deadline is not met, the county stands to lose much, but likely not all, of the 2.5 million-gallon allotment it was granted in 2005.

Angler has proposed building a 2.5 million-gallon plant, drilling wells and constructing water towers to provide future residential and commercial customers along the eastern fringes of the town of Culpeper with utilities they cannot now get — except from the town by special agreement.

The effort would cost just over $100 million, which Angler would finance through bonds and recoup from tap fees. Those fees would start at about $31,000 in 2011 and escalate 5 percent a year, thus doubling the cost by 2030.

Vento stressed that all of the financing would have to be in place "before the first shovel of dirt is turned" and that no rezoning would be needed to make the venture pay for itself. "The by-right use is already there," he said.

After listening intently for almost two hours, the supervisors’ main concerns lay in two areas — a proposed "shortfall" fee and the number of taps required to pay off the debt.

Vento said that under the proposed agreement, a specified number of taps would need to be sold in each five-year period until bondholders are repaid. The county would be required to buy any unsold taps at the going rate, but could resell them at whatever price it deemed appropriate.

Supervisor Larry Aylor questioned whether the county and Angler would then be in competition for customers.

Vento said language would likely have to be included in the agreement to ensure that the county would not be competing against Angler in certain areas until the bond repayment was satisfied.

As for the number of taps needed for repayment, Supervisor Tom Underwood said he thought the 3,200 that Vento proposed was low. He estimated that as many as 8,400 might be needed. "That would be a Herculean task [to find that many customers]," Underwood said.

Vento said that he already has verbal agreements for more than 1,000 taps that Angler will sell to landowners in the project area at a discount.

Supervisor Sue Hansohn also had concerns about whether deep wells could provide all the water needed and suggested using resources from Lake Catalpa to augment the flow. Vento said that was possible.

"If [these problems] can be worked out, I’m all for it," Hansohn said.

Vento said that the project would bring in more commercial development and accompanying tax revenue, eliminate uncertainty as to whether the county would lose its sewage-treatment allocation and increase the county’s quality of life.

He added that clean discharged water from the plant could be sold cheaply to farmers for irrigation, thus recharging underground aquifers.

Following its afternoon closed session, the Board of Supervisors voted to hold a closed work session on the Angler proposal on June 23, and scheduled a public hearing and work session on the issue on Jun. 26 at 7 p.m.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.

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