Posts made in October, 2015

Crew Breaks Through 1600 feet of Rock for New Rivanna Pump Station Tunnel

Posted by on Oct 7, 2015 in Community Project, Featured, New Rivanna Pump Station, Newsroom

Crew Breaks Through 1600 feet of Rock for New Rivanna Pump Station Tunnel

Charlottesville, VA— September 29, 2015 After five months of work, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority contractors have successfully tunneled through about 1,600 feet of rock (6,000 cubic yards), officially reaching the destination at the existing Rivanna Pump Station located adjacent to the City’s Riverview Park in the Woolen Mills area.  The construction crew and engineers witnessed the 11′-3″ diameter, 175 foot long tunnel boring machine (affectionately named Ms. Chelsea, pictured below) breaking into the exit shaft at about 1pm on Tuesday, September 29 as a part of the...

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A Day in the Life of a Lab Technician

Posted by on Oct 7, 2015 in Featured, Newsroom, Water

A Day in the Life of a Lab Technician

Our three full-time laboratory specialists complete over 7,700 lab tests annually to ensure that your drinking water meets all federal and state regulations. We also test the wastewater to assist operational staff in maintaining daily treatment process balance and to ensure that the final effluent meets and exceeds federal and state standards.  Lab technicians count and identify algae populations in the reservoirs to help prevent harmful blooms, and analyze water and wastewater for coliform and E. coli bacteria, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous), metals, oxygen demand and solids. A...

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Powering Moores Creek with Renewable Energy

Posted by on Oct 7, 2015 in Featured, Newsroom, Stewardship

Powering Moores Creek with Renewable Energy

Part of the anaerobic digestion of biosolids from our wastewater creates renewable energy for us on site in the form of methane gas. On average, Rivanna produces 32,725,000 cu ft of methane each year that is captured for use at our Moores Creek Water Resource Recovery facility. A cogenerator burns the gas and produces electrical power that can be distributed within the facility’s internal grid, thereby reducing the amount of external energy that we are required to purchase to run our operations.  

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