The largest water provider on the Northern Neck has petitioned the State Corporation Commission to approve a rate hike of moe 50 percent and the local government in Westmoreland County has vowed to fight the proposal as it did in 1992 and again in 1998. Subdivision representatives from throughout the Northern Neck will gather at A.T. Johnson auditorium at 7 p.m. next Wednesday evening to organize the region’s opposition.
When United Virginia’s successor attempted to hike rates already described as the highest on the east coast in 1992, multiple busloads of unhappy customers attended the SCC hearing in Richmond and contributed many hours of testimony. Similar opposition occurred 12 years ago.

The proposed rate increase was a Board of Supervisors agenda topic in Westmoreland County one month ago, when District 4 Supervisor Woody Hynson described the rate hike proposal as an act of piracy. United Virginia Water provides its service to subdivision residents in Glebe Harbor, Cabin Point, Ebb Tide Beach and Westmoreland and Potomac Shores.
On Dec. 14 Supervisor Russ Culver, a Cabin Point resident, advised board colleagues that “it will be up to us to meet with the public and find out their views.” Culver’s subdivision neighbor, County Administrator Norman Risavi, concurred with a promise to establish a date when the provider’s Northern Neck customers can come together to discuss a strategy for countering the rate increase proposal.
Establishment of the meeting time and place was the final order of business when the supervisors met on Jan. 11.
“Before the next meeting we have to get with the people and talk about the increased water rate proposal,” Hynson, a United Virginia Water customer, said before this Monday’s meeting was officially adjourned.
“We’ve all received a lot of calls in the last month from United Virginia Water customers.”
Risavi quickly told the supervisors his staff was in the process of notifying United Virginia customers in Westmoreland County subdivisions.
“We are also contacting other county administrators,” he explained.
“The last time we had to fight this issue, the other counties participated. We need to bring everyone together to explain the process of opposing the rate increase.”
“I think it is the subject of greatest concern at the moment,” Hynson commented. He then suggested that he hadn’t been aware of such levels of public outcry since the last effort to hike water rates in 1998.
“The figures they’ve sent to the SCC are certainly absurd,” Hynson then stated.
“We need to work together to control where this is going. A plan of action is being taken and participation by everybody is the best way to win this case before the State Commerce Commission.
“We need to try to put the opposition together immediately,” Hynson concluded. On Tuesday afternoon Risavi’s office confirmed establishment of the Jan. 20 meeting date, when customers from throughout the Northern Neck will meet in the central A.T. Johnson location to develop a working strategy.