CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is alerting residents around Woolen Mills of potential odor concerns for the next two weeks due to work being done on the Moores Creek Advanced Resource Recovery Facility on Moores Creek Ln.

“Over the last 18 months, the Moores Creek facility has undergone substantial structural and concrete rehabilitation work on its equalization basins, holding ponds, primary clarifiers, influent box, digester complex, and open-sided storage buildings,” RWSA’s release said. “In recent weeks, work has shifted to the facility’s holding ponds. As part of the work, crews will completely drain a basin on the plant’s western side and remove settled solids to complete concrete restoration, and exposing the solids may increase odors from the plant.”

The work includes applying specialty coatings to steel and concrete, repairing chipped or broken concrete and joints. In recent weeks, the work has moved to the holding ponds that temporarily store wastewater during high flow events until flows subside, and the RWSA said the wastewater is diverted into the treatment process.

Crews will remove the solids during the repairs over the course of the next two weeks, and the odor should subside pretty quickly after that process is complete.

The Moores Creek facility was built in 1958 and expanded in 1981. It treats 9.3 million gallons of wastewater every day, which is sourced from Charlottesville, the urban ring of Albemarle, and Crozet. The facility is one of four operated by RWSA.

“In 2014, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority renamed its wastewater plants to ‘water resource recovery facilities’ to highlight its focus on resource recovery,” RWSA spokesman Westley Kern told Cville Right Now. “These facilities return high-quality water effluent to local streams, enhancing aquatic life, and generate renewable energy by burning the gas created when organic waste, like sewage, breaks down.”

Kern said RWSA operates four of these facilities throughout the area with a total capacity of 15.6 million gallons a day.

“The Moores Creek facility operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, removing excess nutrients and contaminants before discharging the treated wastewater into Moores Creek,” Kern said. “The Department of Environmental Quality regulates the process through a discharge permit.”