Last week's announcement that the University had accepted an invitation to join the Aqueduct Alliance, a group of public and private sector water experts, caught the attention of sustainability-minded students and faculty who sensed the opportunity it could present for them to make an impact on global water issues. An underappreciated aspect of this collaboration between the University and other members of the Alliance such as General Electric and The Coca-Cola Co., however, is its potential to influence water policy decisions in Charlottesville. Given that a major debate is ongoing about the future of the Charlottesville community's water supply and that few constituencies are more crucial than the University in determining the outcome of that debate, the students and faculty who become involved in the Alliance should tap into its plentiful resources to solve local-level water issues, as well as those of regional and global significance.
Although the Charlottesville area presently does not face a water situation as dire as those in parts of the world such as western Australia, North Africa and the southwestern United States, it possesses a number of the same characteristics as those troubled regions. Notably, one of its primary sources of water, the Rivanna River, is at risk of increased sedimentation in the coming years. This would have a detrimental impact on the quality of the community's water supply, forcing the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County to spend additional money treating the water that is taken into their municipal systems.
Equally important is the fact that the Charlottesville area's population dynamics place it at risk of a major water crisis in the future. This almost occurred during a drought in 2002, when the community came within two months of exhausting its water supply and the University debated closing temporarily as a result. Although catastrophe was averted then, the University's inexorable growth likely will drive population figures beyond what the present water system can support. Consequently, the City may find itself unable to continue meeting the University's water needs with a portion of what it purchases from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Even worse, the City could be faced with the need to ration water to the community as a whole because of significantly increased water demands among a burgeoning population of University students and employees living off Grounds within the city limits.
Because the University has such a strong interest in the security of the Charlottesville area's water supply, it should seek to dedicate some of the research it does through the Alliance toward localized conservation and planning efforts. In fact, merely being involved in the Alliance will improve the University's ability to contribute to these endeavors since it will have access to state-of-the-art technology and comprehensive databases featuring information about watersheds around the world. These resources will allow participating students and faculty to draw lessons from other regions and apply them toward problem solving in Charlottesville, which will be highly beneficial to planners and policymakers in both the City and County governments.
For example, if the University can use its access to enhanced data sets to craft more accurate projections of local water needs, it can help municipal leaders avoid becoming mired in situations such as the present one in which competing sets of numbers lend support to different water supply plans. In addition, students and faculty could engage in socioeconomic, demographic and geographic comparisons of Charlottesville to other water-constrained regions of the globe and use conservation efforts underway in those areas to determine what would be the most effective ways for the University to cut back on its water usage.
To be sure, the University's role in the Alliance also should be about discovering solutions for those regions whose water supplies face immediate danger from climate change and expanding populations. If the University is to continue offering additional students access to opportunities such as those which could emerge from its participation in the Alliance, however, then it must find ways to make the most of the Charlottesville area's own finite natural resources.
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