Virginia county moving fast on plan to condemn farmland and access river water (2024)

Caroline County officials say they have tried for 20 years to identify a long-term source for water and have worked for 10 years to get a state permit for an intake facility. That pace is changing though. Plans to condemn a farmer’s land to get access to the Rappahannock River are moving at lightning speed.

The county will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a resolution to condemn 11 acres owned by Cory Garrett, a fifth-generation farmer, so Caroline can acquire the land by eminent domain. Typically at public hearings, governing bodies announce they may or may not make a decision that evening. But the three-page document in the Board of Supervisors’ packet shows the resolution’s adoption date of Tuesday, June 18.

The resolution says the county has made “bona fide efforts to acquire the property” from Garrett and his wife, Rebekah, but to no avail. And, Cory Garrett has stated since last summer that he will not sell his land because he doesn’t believe the county has studied the matter sufficiently, nor does he trust the process.

He claims county and state officials have not been open and transparent — and says his experiences of the last 10 days underscore that.

He and his wife got one week to consider the county’s offer for their land. Exactly seven days after Caroline sent the couple the county’s offer in writing, the county posted information about the public hearing to condemn the land, as it’s legally mandated to do.

Cory Garrett said it was: “Yet other example of how county officials are operating on this project. Don’t say any more than they have to. Do just what is necessary to check the legal boxes. Move fast as possible to squash any and all negative press.”

No one from Caroline responded to The Free Lance–Star’s questions about the timing of the offer and public hearing to condemn the land.

The Garretts had been waiting for months for something in writing, and they received an envelope from Caroline County on Thursday, June 6. The date on the cover page was the day before, June 5, and the package was sent by overnight delivery.

In it, the county offered $78,400 for the land and right-of-way access to a water-intake facility that would be built in the Garrett field and another access to the river, where a pipe would be installed. The offer was based on the January 2024 appraisal of the property, according to the letter signed by Alan Partin, deputy county administrator.

The last paragraph said the Garretts had until Thursday, June 13, to sign the offer and return it to the county. When that didn’t happen, Caroline staff on Thursday posted its agenda for the Tuesday, June 18, meeting, including the public hearing on condemnation proceeding.

Caroline says it’s worked closely with state and federal agencies to minimize the impact on the environment with its proposed water-intake facility which, if approved, could withdraw as much as 13.9 million gallons of water a day from the river.

Caroline has applied for permits from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to extract surface water from the Garrett farm, which is off Tidewater Trail and near The Lodge at Moss Neck.

Then, a 35-mile pipeline would carry the water to the other side of the county, to Carmel Church and Ladysmith, for homes, businesses and industrial projects, according to DEQ’s draft permit. The project would take at least seven years to complete and cost at least $200 million, county officials said earlier this year.

In the resolution regarding the land condemnation, Caroline stressed the importance of finding an adequate water supply “to meet its future needs, driven by the population growth associated with a vibrant community, and to support our economic development successes that will bring new tax revenue and jobs to county citizens.”

The county currently relies solely on groundwater for public water, and declining levels in eastern Virginia aquifers have led to new regulations and limitations on groundwater. That forced Caroline to look elsewhere for water, according to its resolution.

It also needed to get its claim on the Rappahannock before other jurisdictions did, according to the county document.

“If Caroline allows other localities to control the limited supply of surface water resources available, it will forfeit the ability to control its own destiny on the critical issue of water supply.”

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has tentatively decided to issue the permit for the water-intake facility, but it’s gathering comments through Tuesday on the matter. It will decide then if a public hearing is needed — and the Friends of the Rappahannock group is hoping that will happen.

“I want (DEQ) to listen to what we’re saying and address our issues and make them mitigate for what they’re proposing to do,” said Brent Hunsinger, Friends of the Rappahannock’s advocacy and coastal programs director.

While the county has stressed that 99% of the water that flows past the proposed intake facility will remain in the Rappahannock, Hunsinger is concerned that the water taken from the Rappahannock will go through an inter-basin transfer and end up in the Mattaponi River watershed.

“Not a single drop of water removed from the Rappahannock would come back to the river,” according to Friends of the Rappahannock’s website.

At a town-hall meeting in January, residents raised concerns about the new facility being built to lure profitable data centers to the county, not necessarily to provide drinking water for residents. Caroline officials have stressed the plan was in place long before data centers entered the discussion.

However, the county’s draft permit notes that by 2038, Caroline would need more water for industrial needs than residential uses.

Comments about the water project may be posted to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission online at webapps.mrc.virginia.gov/public/habitat/comments. Under application number, enter 20200514, then enter name and email address in order to post comments.

Comments requesting that DEQ hold a public hearing on the water-intake plan may be sent by Tuesday, June 18, to Elizabeth Gallup at elizabeth.gallup@deq.virginia.gov.

Gallup no longer works at DEQ, but a spokesperson said her email is being kept open through the comment deadline.