CULPEPER -- The town of Culpeper is considering spending nearly $99,000 to investigate additional sources of drinking water.

The Town Council Water and Sewer Committee this week recommended that the town spend $69,800 for a capacity and expansion study of Lake Catalpa, also known as Bald Run Lake, a 46-acre body of water northwest of downtown.

At its Monday meeting, the committee also endorsed a separate $29,500 study of the reactivation of two old town wells on Spring Street and Fairfax Street Extended.

Committee members Duke duFrane and Mike Olinger did not attend the meeting. Committee member Steve Jenkins was at the meeting, and Mayor Pranas Rimeikis served as an alternate. Town Council votes on the proposed costs at its meeting Tuesday.

The goal of the Lake Catalpa study, according to a recent town report, is to obtain 1 million gallons per day of water to supplement Lake Pelham, a 254-acre lake and the town's primary source of drinking water.

The proposal would require about 1½ miles of piping to connect the two lakes.

Lake Pelham has a yield of more than 4 million gallons per day; the town currently uses about half of that.

The town has water rights for the top 5½ feet of Lake Catalpa, built in 1973 by the federal government as part of a five-lake flood control project.

Pelham, Mountain Run, Caynor and Merrimac lakes were built as part of the same project.

But four years ago, the town conducted a water supply master plan, evaluating several options for increasing the water supply for the next 40 years.

The plan found that piping water from Lake Catalpa would not be a cost-effective option.

Jenkins felt it would be better if town staff further investigated water opportunities at the lake rather than paying a consultant thousands of dollars to do it.

According to the recent town report, the Department of Environmental Quality has been working with the Timmons Group, a consultant, on developing a task order for the Lake Catalpa study.

Dwight Wicks, the town's new director of environmental services, told the committee that the town could cease the proposed eight-task study at any time.

"If you can't deliver the 1 million gallons there's no point to it," he said.

The committee also quickly passed through the recommendation for a study of what it would take to reactivate the old wells.

In the past, the Spring Street well supplemented the old water plant, also located on Spring Street. The well on Fairfax Street Extended was pumped directly into and used as an emergency source of water.

Again, the DEQ is working with the Timmons Group on the proposed well study, which originated over concerns of water storage after last summer's drought when the town enacted mandatory water restrictions for the first time.

Wicks said, if approved, the study would concentrate on water quality.

"These wells have not been operated in a long time," he said. "Even if we get the quantity of water, we have to make sure the quality is there."
Allison Brophy Champion is a staff writer for the Culpeper Star-Exponent.