October 16, 2024: Dominion and Amazon to partner to bring small nuclear reactors to North Anna power station
Plus: The federal housing choice voucher program turns 50
The Virginia General Assembly keeps a calendar of all of the days that have been recognized by legislators for one reason or another. In 2002, Delegates and Senators both agreed to designate October 16 as Children of America Finding Hope Day to honor a nonprofit in southwest Virginia that sought “a day designated for reestablishing lost relationships between parents and teenaged children and establishing a stronger bond between parents and younger children would benefit the family unit and mitigate many of the problems facing America's young people.”
I’m Sean Tubbs and I’ve spent the last 30 minutes trying to determine if the organization still exists and have concluded that’s a little out of reach for this edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.
In today’s installment:
Dominion Energy and Amazon have agreed to work together to locate a small modular reactor at the North Anna Power Station
Republican John McGuire has turned in his campaign finance report for the 3rd quarter
President Biden has recognized the 50th anniversary of the federal housing voucher program
The head of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has officially expressed concerns about new rules to require all localities in a given river basin to plan together
Work to add railway capacity across the Potomac River got underway yesterday
First shout-out: JackFest coming up on October 20
Looking for a free fall event for your family that will help raise money for cancer treatments for patients at UVA’s Children’s Hospital? Mark your calendar for October 20 and JackFest at Foxfield in Albemarle County. That will be from noon to 4 p.m. at Foxfield.
The free event is named for Jack Callahan, a boy who beat back metastatic cancer after a 13-month course of intensive treatments in 2019 and 2020. JackFest raises funds for Ronald McDonald House to support families who need assistance while other treatments are underway as well as. Events include:
Kids’ running races and family relays including a Superhero Dash, Kids’ Mighty 1-Mile Run, Cross Country races and a Child-Parent Relay Race
Family activities such as an inflatable obstacle course, bounce house, and slides; a petting zoo, and a truck touch with emergency vehicles
Adult and kid food options - including food trucks - and local beer & wine
While the event is free, people can sign up for the races and the Team Fundraising Challenge at the JackFest website at www.jackfest.net.
Dominion and Amazon to partner on modular nuclear reactors in Louisa County
One day after Dominion Energy filed a new plan with Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, the company has announced a partnership with Amazon to advance development of small modular reactors at the North Anna power station.
“Power demand in Virginia is growing by more than 5 percent annually and is expected to double in the next 15 years,” reads a press announcement sent out this morning. “To reliably serve this unprecedented growth, Dominion Energy is developing an 'all-of-the-above' mix of new power generation sources, including leading investments in offshore wind, solar, battery storage and natural gas.”
The announcement builds off the issuance in July of a request for proposals for firms to explore construction at Lake Anna. Governor Glenn Youngkin was on hand at that announcement as well as one today.
"In alignment with our All-American, All-of-the-Above energy plan, small modular nuclear reactors will play a critical role in positioning Virginia as a leading nuclear innovation hub," Youngkin is quoted in the press release. "Amazon Web Services' commitment to this technology and their partnership with Dominion is a significant step forward to meet the future power needs of a growing Virginia."
Amazon is also constructing two data center campuses in Louisa County as part of an $11 billion investment. That was announced in late August 2023.
On Tuesday, Dominion Energy filed a document called the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) with both the SCC and the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
“It is apparent under any reasonable set of planning assumptions that maintaining reliability and affordability will require an ‘all of the above’ approach that includes continued focus on energy efficiency programs, an expanded and improved transmission and distribution grid, and more of all available generation resources—wind (primarily offshore), solar, natural gas and nuclear, along with energy storage,” reads an introduction to the IRP.
The document also details how small modular reactors produce about a third of the power of a traditional reactor at about 300 megawatts. One advantage is they can be built off site and shipped in.
“While they still use nuclear fission to generate heat, they employ alternative coolants such as gas, liquid metal, or molten salt instead of water,” reads page 62 of the IPR.
The plan anticipates that the first SMR’s could come online in the early to mid 2030’s.
Here are some other highlights as written by Dominion:
3,400 megawatts (MW) of new offshore wind in addition to the 2,600-MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project currently under development off the coast of Virginia Beach. CVOW is the largest offshore wind project under development in the U.S. and remains on-time and on-budget.
Around 12,000 MW of new solar, a more than 150% increase to the 4,750 MW of solar the company currently has in operation or under development.
Around 500 MW of new battery storage
For additional information:
Amazon and Google have plans for fueling their data centers: Nuclear power, CBS News, October 16, 2024
Amazon.com joins push for nuclear power to meet data center demand, Timothy Gardner, October 16, 2024
Amazon, Google dueling nuclear investments to power data centers with clean energy, ABC News, October 16, 2024
McGuire files campaign finance report for third quarter
The Republican who narrowly won a nomination race for Virginia’s Fifth District had $121,562.20 in the bank at the end of September according to the latest filing with the Federal Election Commission.
John McGuire raised $198,577.02 from June 1 to September 30 and spent $198,230.81 during the quarter, a period that includes the June 18 Republican primary. McGuire narrowly defeated incumbent Bob Good, a result backed up by a narrow recount.
McGuire’s opponent in the November 5 general election is Democrat Gloria Tinsley Witt. Her campaign has raised a total of $277,105.55 through September 30 and had $163,904.68 on hand as of September 30.
McGuire raised more than Good during the campaign with an overall total of $1,664,164.22 to Good’s $1,417,214.91.
The calendar for Hampden-Sydney College lists a campaign forum scheduled for tomorrow night at 6 p.m. in Johns Auditorium. (link to event)
Federal housing choice voucher program turns 50
A federal program intended to help people with lower incomes turns 50 this year and President Joe Biden issued a proclamation today marking the occasion.
“Since it was created in 1974, the Housing Choice Voucher program has served as our country's largest rental assistance program, providing millions of families with access to affordable housing in communities of their choice,” Biden wrote in the statement.
The housing choice voucher program is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and locally through public housing authorities (PHA) and other municipal governments.
In his statement, Biden claimed that his administration has worked to increase the program by adding funding for an additional 100,000 households.
“Thanks to the thousands of Public Housing Agency partners who administer this program and the private market landlords who participate in it, individuals and families are receiving housing and resources, resulting in better health, employment, and educational outcomes,” Biden continued.
Those who qualify for the housing choice voucher program can select where they want to live as long as a landlord is willing to also participate. Eligibility extends to households and individuals who make less than 50 percent of the area median income, but federal law requires 75 percent of a locality’s vouchers to go to households at less than 30 percent.
For 2024, HUD calculates the area median income for Charlottesville at $124,200.
“A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family,” reads a primer on HUD’s website. “The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program.”
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority owns and operates public housing units as well apartments funded through the housing choice voucher program. According to CRHA’s most recent annual plan, there are 279 public housing units and 681 housing choice vouchers.
The CRHA waitlist is currently closed for both the voucher program as well as public housing sites. The city also pays CRHA $900,000 a year for additional vouchers not funded by the federal government.
Albemarle County’s Office of Housing also administers housing choice vouchers.
“The voucher identifies the size of [a] unit the family qualifies for, as well as the maximum amount of monthly rent the family can afford to pay,” reads the county’s website.
At their next meeting, CRHA Commissioners will vote on a proposal to set the fair market rates for 2025. The resolution was set to be adopted at an October 10 work session but was deferred due to a lack of a quorum.
Housing choice vouchers are separate from project-based vouchers that are awarded through localities using funding from HUD. Examples include units at Kindlewood operated by the Piedmont Housing Alliance and the Crossings at Fourth and Preston operated by SupportWorks.
RWSA expresses concern about mandatory regional water supply planning
The executive director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority was the sole respondent to a request for comments about new rules that call for localities that share a watershed to plan together for future water needs.
“We would have concern about water sharing projects becoming mandatory in the future,” wrote Bill Mawyer in the only comment made on Virginia’s Regulatory Town Hall.
Since 2008, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has required localities with municipal water supplies to provide plans showing how they will meet future needs. The RWSA maintains reservoirs and water treatment facilities that serve the City of Charlottesville, the Town of Scottsville, and urbanized portions of Albemarle County.
There are two other municipal water supply plans at various stages of implementation with Greene County going it alone to build a new reservoir and Fluvanna County and Louisa County cooperating through the James River Water Authority.
Legislation passed the General Assembly in 2020 that would appear to require more cooperation in planning. New rules have now gone into effect to put a framework in place for that to occur.
“The amendments mandate that each locality in a particular regional planning area shall participate in cross-jurisdictional, coordinated water resource planning, and all localities in each area shall together develop and submit a single regional plan,” reads a description of the changes posted to the Regulatory Town Hall.
Mawyer’s comment asked for clarification about how that would work.
“We expect the VDEQ Planning Staff to provide support in determining who the voting members of the Regional Planning Unit will include,” Mawyer wrote. Would the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission get a seat? What about the five towns? How would votes be weighted?
The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority next meets on October 22.
Second shout-out: Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards
In today’s second shout-out: This may be the weekend to find a new tree from your yard and garden. The Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards (CATS) maintains its own tree nursery, entirely run by volunteers. They plant saplings obtained from the Virginia Department of Forestry and other sources and nurture them until they are large enough to be planted out. This Saturday, they’ll hold their latest sale from 10 a.m. to noon at the Virginia Department of Forestry at 900 Natural Resources Drive. They concentrate on native trees, some of which are hard to find from commercial sources.
They’ll have large trees from Bald Cypress to White Pine, medium trees from Sweet Bay Magnolia to Persimmon, and shrubbery from Winterberry to Korean Spice Viburnum. For a full visit, visit their website at charlottesvilleareatreestewards.org. Prices range from $6 to $15.
Ground broken for Long Bridge project to expand passenger rail capacity in Virginia
There are many infrastructure bottlenecks that constrain the expansion of passenger rail in the United States, but construction of new infrastructure to remove one of them got underway yesterday.
Federal and Virginia officials broke ground on a series of new bridges across the Potomac River at Long Bridge, a structure currently at 98 percent of capacity.
“On Long Bridge today, freight and passenger rail that share the tracks that cross this bridge at a time when passenger ridership is on the rise and when capacity is virtually maxed out at peak hours, are depending on a structure that is more than 100 years old,” said Pete Buttigieg, the United States Secretary of Transportation.
Planning for the project began in 2011 at a time when the Commonwealth of Virginia was beginning to fund passenger rail as an alternative to highway construction. The project has been shepherded by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, an entity created soon after former Governor Ralph Northam announced the investment of $3.7 billion in passenger rail in December 2019. That was just over ten years since the Commonwealth first began investing in passenger rail by paying Amtrak to run several routes including the Northeast Regional which now travels between Roanoke and Boston.
“Back then, we weren't really sure what was going to happen,” Statdler said. “We expected about 30,000 riders in that first year. Twelve months later, 100,000 people rode that train.”
By the time the bridge is completed in 2030, VPRA Executive Director D.J. Stadtler said there will be 13 round-trips each day between Richmond and D.C.
Funding for the project is authorized through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that passed Congress in 2021. Gerry Connolly, Virginia’s 11th District Representative in Congress, said that was a transformative bill and an investment in the future.
“Today, we're celebrating $729 million for the long bridge as part of that bill,” Connolly said. “But that bill is the largest investment in roads and bridges since Dwight Eisenhower's interstate highway system. It is the biggest federal investment in public transit in American history.”
Seventh District Representative Abigail Spanberg said additional rail opportunities take people off of highways like Interstate 64.
“I represent people who rely on passenger rail to get back and forth to work,” Spanberger said. “And it will be transformative and really life changing for us to know that we will have millions of Virginians who will be able to travel across the long bridge on Amtrak or Vre to get where they want to go and to do so on time.”
Buttigieg said the country is investing in rail’s future and this is just one example.
“Earlier this year, I was in Las Vegas, where we broke ground on a project that will be the first true high speed rail operating on American soil, connecting to southern California,” Buttigieg said. “I was in Raleigh to break ground on a passenger line that's going to connect to Wake forest and eventually on up to Richmond, which means one day trains starting there could find their way all the way through these new and improved bridges into DC.”
Another project of the VPRA is an extension of the Northeast Regional line to the New River Valley. In September, the agency announced the purchase of railways from Norfolk Southern that includes a stretch necessary for the train to make it to Christiansburg. (learn more)
Reading material for #745
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Meet the family behind Carter Mountain, Sarah Allen, CBS19 News, October 14, 2024
New Developments in Charlottesville and Albemarle Region Highlight Economic Focus, Cville Right Now, October 14, 2024
Blue Moon announces closing, CBS19 News, October 15, 2024
Five-unit Venable apartment building to be replaced with nine-dwelling structure, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, October 16, 2024
The end of #745
Is five stories enough? A personal failing of mine is that I’m never satisfied with anything I do and feel I must always work harder. However, after doing this for over four years, there’s a tremendous feeling of relief and satisfaction when I decide it’s time to publish.
I want people to understand how things work and to do that I have to provide context. I believe this is a role that journalism can play, and I try my best to remain neutral. That’s something I’ve known for over 30 years, and I keep a distance from the world in order to feel I’m not being overly influenced by anyone.
Sometimes I do wonder what would have happened if I had not attended an activities fair in my sophomore year at Virginia Tech. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living, but when I began writing stories for the Preston Journal and then the Tech Independent, I knew this what I wanted to do.
And I am so grateful that I get to spend my time doing research for a public audience, writing in a style that may seem outdated in this era. But, to me it seems to me a functioning civilization needs many people who understand how things operate. And if you’re reading this, you might think so soon.
About one in five subscribers pay and the system is one that could use a few tweaks here and there. This newsletter will continue to change over time, and I hope you’ll continue being with me for the journey.
Now back to explaining the shout-outs. JackFest comes from a $200 a year subscriber on Substack. CATS actually doesn’t have anyone paying for it, as the person who was paying for it moved out of the area and stopped contributing through Patreon, so that one is a bit of a legacy.
That $200 year subscription through Substack brought in a $200 match through Ting. That’s part of a generous sponsorship that’s been in place now since April 2021. This is incredibly generous, and if you sign up for service and you are within Ting’s service area, enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
Goodness. I have got to hire a copy editor