The Monacan Indian Nation says it wants to work with the James River Water Authority to determine if a site two miles upstream from the planned pump station and water pipeline is a reasonable alternative.
Before the authority voted on March 11 to submit a report to the United States Army Corps of Engineers stating there is no better option than the existing location, an attorney for the tribe proposed a close look at the Forsyth property, owned by Richard and Julia Rose.
The tribe claims that the land where the pump station is currently proposed is the historical site of Rassawek, the Monacans’ capital city prior to European settlement. The water authority says Rassawek could have been located elsewhere in the area.
“You stated … that a primary obstacle to your clients’ ability or willingness to deviate from current plans is that the Nation has not identified a specific alternative that it might find acceptable,” Monacans attorney Greg Werkheiser wrote in a March 10 letter to his counterparts in Louisa and Fluvanna counties. “The Nation has now done so.”
The letter urged the authority to defer the vote to approve its alternatives analysis, which it is required to submit to the Army Corps under the terms of a revised permitting process. Consultants for the authority studied several alternative locations along the James River and determined that all the other options are cost-prohibitive.
The Forsyth site is the most affordable alternative, but would still cost at least $10 million more than the current location, according to the study.
Werkheiser questioned the data used in the analysis, and noted that the full report has not been made public to date.
“The summary, on its face, evidences attempts to create a greater-than-reality gap in projected costs between [the authority’s] preferred route through the heart of Rassawek and alternatives,” he wrote.
He said that if the authority agreed to study the Forsyth site, his firm, Cultural Heritage Partners, would work together with GAI, the authority’s own archaeological consultants.
Werkheiser added that the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) has enlisted an independent engineering firm, Aquilogic Inc., to evaluate the alternatives analysis. The SELC and Preservation Virginia submitted a letter on March 5 to the Army Corps urging it to require an environmental impact statement for the water project because of its significant impacts on historic and cultural resources.
Read the entire article at the Central Virginian.