Firefly gets more state support for fiber expansion in Louisa; Harmful Algal Blooms continue to plague upper end of Lake Anna; Recount in VA05 Republican primary set for Aug. 1
Engage Louisa is a nonpartisan newsletter that keeps folks informed about Louisa County government. We believe our community is stronger and our government serves us better when we increase transparency, accessibility, and engagement.
This week in county government: public meetings, July 29 through August 3
For the latest information on county meetings including public meetings of boards, commissions, authorities, work groups, and internal county committees, click here. (Note: Louisa County occasionally schedules internal committee/work group meetings after publication time. Check the county’s website for the most updated information).
Monday, July 29
Community Policy Management Team, Louisa County Office Building, 1 Woolfolk Ave., Louisa, 1 pm.
Additional information about Louisa County’s upcoming public meetings is available here.
Interested in taking your talents to one of the county’s numerous boards and commissions? Find out more here including which boards have vacancies and how to apply.
TJPDC, Firefly awarded $12.2 million for fiber expansion in Louisa, nine other counties
More state aid is on the way to expand broadband access in Louisa County.
The Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) last week awarded $41 million in grants to 10 broadband construction projects serving 20 localities, according to a press release from Governor Glenn Youngkin. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) received the largest allocation: $12.2 million to support Firefly Fiber Broadband’s effort to extend fiber access to unserved and underserved locations in 10 central Virginia counties including Louisa.
“The TJPDC is proud to continue our current partnership with Firefly to reach the objective of providing universal broadband access to all underserved and unserved areas in Central Virginia,” TJPDC Executive Director Christine Jacobs said in a press release. “We look forward to more collaboration with this great team to further advance the provision of high-speed fiber internet across the project area.”
Firefly CEO Gary Wood also hailed the funding as an important step.
“Thanks to the critical funding provided by the Virginia General Assembly and made available through the VATI program, we can now assure that every family and business in central Virginia will have access to reliable, affordable internet service equivalent to the best in the United States,” Wood said in a press release.
In 2021, Louisa County partnered with TJPDC, Firefly, a wholly owned subsidiary of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC), and the area’s two other electric providers—Dominion Energy and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC)—to expand broadband access to the county’s unserved areas. Firefly is serving as the internet service provider and, outside of CVEC territory, connecting to infrastructure owned by Dominion and REC. TJPDC is administering grant funding that supports the project.
Firefly’s Regional Internet Service Expansion project (RISE), an initiative aimed at bringing fiber to parts of 13 central Virginia localities, is the main vehicle the company is using to connect the county. With an estimated price tag of $70 million in Louisa County alone, the project is expected to install some 1,100 miles of fiber, bringing high-speed internet access to some 11,000 homes and business in the county by 2025. Across the 13-county project area, RISE will lay 5,000 miles of fiber, deliver broadband access to some 112,000 Virginians and cost about $330 million.
To support the project, TJPDC and Firefly received a $79 million VATI grant two years ago with $22 million of that expected to directly benefit Louisa residents. The Louisa County Board of Supervisors committed $9 million in local funding to effort.
According to TJPDC’s press release, Firefly will use the latest round of grant funding to support a $48.6 million expansion of its current project with the goal of bringing broadband at gigabit speeds to an additional 5,825 eligible locations in Louisa and nine other counties in the next two years. Those counties include Amherst, Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell, Fluvanna, Goochland, Greene, Madison and Powhatan.
Wood briefed the board of supervisors on the application for additional VATI funding at supervisors’ November 26 meeting, noting that the funding would support Firefly’s effort to extend fiber access to hundreds of homes that were left out of the initial plan.
The RISE project, supported by the first round of VATI funding, is specifically aimed at reaching unserved locations, Wood said, so areas served by other high-speed internet providers didn’t qualify for inclusion nor did areas that had previously received federal money for internet expansion. That meant that hundreds of homes that don’t have high-speed internet fell through the cracks. The latest round of grant funding provides recipients flexibility to target underserved areas.
Using improved maps from the Federal Communications Commission and other tools, Wood said that Firefly “scoured the county” to identify 441 homes in need of service. Some of the residences are at the end of long driveways, making it cost-prohibitive for other internet providers to reach them. Many are located near the Towns of Louisa and Mineral with some scattered around Lake Anna and the Blue Ridge Shores community.
“This picks up every (unserved) location left. Every single one of them. If we find another one, we’re going to put that in because we want to make sure everybody has access to broadband,” Wood told the board.
Wood said Louisa County’s portion of the project is expected to cost $1.6 million. Firefly isn’t asking the county for any additional financial support.
Wood provides occasional public updates to supervisors on the progress of the RISE project. His last in-depth briefing came about 10 months ago at the board’s September 18 meeting.
Wood has acknowledged that, due to labor shortages and kinks in the supply chain, Firefly and its partners got off to a slower than anticipated start. But, he said in September that his company was picking up speed and intends to complete the project by August of 2025, the deadline set by VATI.
Residents can find more information about the county-wide fiber initiative and register for service on Firefly’s website. The website includes a timeline for when connections are expected to begin on specific substation and circuits. Firefly also hosts virtual town halls to let residents know when connections are starting in their area.
Launched in 2017 and administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), VATI provides targeted funding to expand broadband to unserved and underserved locations.
Over the last several years, the initiative has benefitted from more than $700 million in federal support from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package passed by Congress in March 2021.
On Thursday, federal officials announced that Virginia is on track to receive another $1.48 billion to support broadband expansion via the Broadband Access, Equity and Deployment Program (BEAD). The program is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress in late 2021.
Harmful Algal Blooms plague upper end of Lake Anna as LAAC launches treatment plan
Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB) continue to plague the upper end of Lake Anna.
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) on July 22 extended a “no swim” advisory, first issued in late June, for the lake’s Upper North Anna Branch and added an advisory for the Middle North Anna Branch and the Upper and Middle sections of the Pamunkey Branch after testing found high concentrations of cyanobacteria that can be detrimental to human health and harmful to wildlife and pets.
The following day, VDH expanded the advisory to include Terry’s Run, a tributary of Upper Pamunkey Creek. (press release)
The area under the “no swim” advisory includes:
Upper North Anna Branch – From the upper inundated waters of the North Anna arm, to include the “Sandbar” of the lake and downstream to the Route 522 Bridge.
Upper and Middle North Anna Branch – From the Route 522 Bridge, to include Route 719 (Holladay Bridge), to Lumsden Flats at Rose Valley Drive.
Upper-Upper Pamunkey Branch - From the upper inundated waters of Pamunkey Branch to Runnymede Park.
Upper Pamunkey Branch – From Runnymede Park to the confluence with Terry’s Run.
Middle Pamunkey Branch – From confluence with Terry’s Run to Route 612 (Stubbs Bridge).
Terry’s Run – From the upper inundated waters of Terry’s Run to the confluence with Upper Pamunkey Branch.
Tests conducted on July 16 found unsafe levels of cyanobacteria at five test sites. Cyanobacteria can also produce toxins and one cyanotoxin was detected at an Upper North Anna and Pamunkey Branch testing location. Both were below levels of health concern, per VDH.
While water samples weren’t collected on Terry’s Run during the July 16 testing, VDH opted to expand the advisory after the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) “confirmed a visual observation of cyanobacteria presence,” and the agency received a citizen observation report. VDH said the expanded advisory was issued “out of an abundance of caution.”
The public is advised to avoid direct contact with these areas of the lake until algae concentrations return to acceptable levels. The advisory warns people and pets to avoid activities that may involve ingesting water like swimming, windsurfing and stand-up paddle boarding. In humans, cyanobacteria can cause skin rash and gastrointestinal illness including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
The advisory is unrelated to the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that recently impacted the Lake Anna area, as that pathogen is not associated with HAB, per VDH.
The next round of HAB monitoring is scheduled for the week of August 15, weather permitting.
Harmful Algal Blooms have become a persistent problem at the lake in recent years, prompting VDH to issue “no swim” advisories for parts of its upper reaches every summer since 2018 and DEQ, in 2022, to include the lake on its list of impaired waterways.
Over the last several years, county officials and Louisa’s representatives in the General Assembly have lobbied for state aid to address the issue, arguing that the lake is an economic engine and the blooms’ persistence could drive away tourists, negatively impact the local economy and harm the waterway’s long-term health.
Those efforts have borne some fruit. Two years ago, lawmakers appropriated $3.5 million to DEQ to study HAB in Lake Anna and the Shenandoah River, another waterway where the blooms have become a persistent problem, with an eye toward establishing long-range mitigation strategies.
The agency, in cooperation with VDH and the US Geological Survey (USGS), launched a three-year lake-specific study last year with the goal of developing a watershed plan to restore and protect the upper lake’s waters.
State officials followed that up last fall with a $1 million allocation to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to fund near-term remediation and mitigation efforts in hopes making a more immediate impact on the blooms’ growth.
DCR subsequently tasked the Lake Anna Advisory Committee (LAAC) with administering the funding and developing a mitigation and remediation plan. LAAC is an inter-jurisdictional panel comprised of elected officials and citizen representatives from Louisa, Spotsylvania and Orange counties, the three localities home to Lake Anna shoreline.
LAAC launches multi-year treatment plan
With the state’s support, LAAC developed its Lake Anna Cyanobacteria Mitigation and Remediation Program (LACMRP), a five-year effort aimed at reining in HAB—or, put another way, reducing cyanobacteria cell counts—in the lake’s upper reaches.
The organization inked two one-year contracts with companies tasked with tackling the problem. It awarded $821,991 to EutroPHIX and its partner SOLitude Lake Management, firms with deep experience addressing water quality issues, and $81,500 to Clean Streams, Rivers and Lakes (CSRL), a nonprofit startup that has brought some innovative, if unproven, treatments to the table.
EutroPHIX is working in the upper end of the North Anna Branch while CSRL is working in Terry’s Run. LAAC opted not to conduct treatment in the Pamunkey Branch, at least initially, allowing it to serve as a control for the DEQ study. Both EutroPHIX and CSRL launched their mitigation efforts in mid-June.
While the exact cause of HAB at Lake Anna is complex, the blooms’ growth is generally attributed to excess nutrients—namely phosphorus—in warm water, so the project aims to inactivate and reduce phosphorus in the treatment areas. Excess phosphorus and other nutrients can come from runoff from development and agriculture, among other sources.
“If you can reduce phosphorus, that’s when you reduce the energy source for the cyanobacteria and, from that, you’ll have a reduced cell count,” Harry Looney, a Louisa County resident and LAAC’s water quality subcommittee chair, said at the committee’s March meeting.
According to a study commissioned by LAAC in the North Anna Branch two years ago, 80 percent of the phosphorus driving cyanobacteria growth enters the lake from the watershed while the other 20 percent is already in the waterway. That means phosphorus reduction requires a multi-faceted approach.
LAAC has emphasized throughout the early stages of the program that it’s taking a deliberate approach to addressing excess phosphorus, with an eye toward balancing the lake’s ecosystem, and that all the products deployed by its contractors are environmentally safe for humans and wildlife.
Both treatment plans have been reviewed by DEQ and other state agencies and approved by Dominion Energy, which owns the lake and operates it as a cooling reservoir for the North Anna Nuclear Power Station.
North Anna Branch
In the Upper North Anna branch, EutroPHIX is addressing excess phosphorus by deploying EutroSORB G, a lanthanum modified bentonite (LMB) formulation that’s designed to eliminate phosphorus released from sediment.
Looney said at the March meeting that the product is similar to Phoslock, a chemical binding agent that’s been around for about two decades and widely deployed for phosphorus reduction. He said that EutroSORB G differs from Phoslock in that it contains roughly twice the active ingredient, so less of the product is required.
The company applied some 88,000 pounds of EutroSORB G over the upper 600 acres of the North Anna Branch between June 17 and June 20. VDH issued its first HAB advisory of the summer just after the application, based on water samples collected on June 17.
To address phosphorus entering the lake from the watershed, EutroPHIX is injecting a proprietary binding agent called EutroSORB WC into the North Anna River. Though the formula is proprietary, EutroPhIX shared its ingredients with Dominion, which greenlit its use.
The company installed an injection and monitoring system along the North Anna River, 1.5 miles upstream from the lake. The system includes a trailer-mounted set of pumps and electronics called the SePro Automated Treatment Technology (SATT), which injects the proprietary formula into the river to inactive phosphorus entering the lake.
It also includes a pair of water quality monitoring systems made by GreenEyes Environmental Monitoring Solutions, which monitor the river for nutrients including the amount of phosphorus in the water.
In addition, EutroPHIX relies on data from a US Geological Survey gaging system located further up the North Anna to calculate river discharge. Together, the gage and GreenEyes monitors help the company determine how much of the chemical to inject into the river.
During an update on the project at LAAC’s July 25 meeting, Looney said that the injection process got off to a late start, not commencing until July, and the amount of water flowing into the lake from the river has been less than expected, meaning EutroPHIX has excess product.
The company recommended spraying the product directly into the lake in the coming weeks to help it meet its initial goal of reducing excess phosphorus by 10 percent. LAAC’s overall goal is to reduce and sustain the level of total phosphorous in the lake’s upper reaches to below 30 parts per billion, the threshold for when a lake or waterway is considered eutrophic or sick.
“We’re not impacting the water quality in the way that we want to because the product is not getting into the lake. This is a way to make a better impact on the water quality, using a product that’s already allocated and just getting it into the lake,” EutroPHIX water quality specialist Shannon Junior told the committee.
The committee voted unanimously to allow EutroPHIX to apply the rest of its proprietary formula to the lake by September 1, pending written approval from Dominion Energy and the Department of Wildlife Resources, review by DEQ and a green-light from Looney.
Terry’s Run
Beginning in mid-June, CSRL deployed Wollastonite, a product mostly composed of processed granular calcium silicate, to inactivate excess phosphorus in Terry’s Run. Like EutroSORB G, CSRL’s calcium silicate formulation serves as a binding agent, removing excess nutrients by making them unavailable as a food source for the blooms.
In collaboration with the Wollastonite treatment, the nonprofit has also deployed what Looney describes as a “very innovative” method to target excess phosphorus entering the lake from the watershed. The organization is placing ceramic rocks and pods infused with beneficial bacteria in the lake with the expectation that the bacteria will consume phosphorus coming from outside sources.
Looney said at the July meeting that more than 850 “bio-reactors” have been placed in Terry’s Run and surrounding creeks with some attached to buoys maintained by the committee. The reactors range in size “from small rock-like devices to custom-designed units that contain multiple bio-reactors in a single unit,” Looney wrote in a report submitted to the committee.
“The nice thing about these bacteria is they consume nutrients and when the water temperatures get low in the winter, they go dormant. Next spring, they’ll come back to life and start doing the thing all over again. So, these bio-reactors, if they’re not hit or damaged…should be good for five to 10 years,” Looney said.
Moving forward
While it’s too early to determine the efficacy of either treatment plan—the program has been described as “a marathon not a sprint”—LAAC intends to evaluate both CSRL and EutroPHIX’s work in the coming months before deciding on next steps.
Though its evaluation of water quality data will play a prominent role in determining how to move forward, the availability of funding will also be an important factor.
LAAC opted to contract with EutroPHIX and CSRL for only one year, in part because of funding constraints. The committee pitched the inaugural year of the five-year program as a way to evaluate the firms’ performance. But it also gives the committee time to obtain additional funding for subsequent phases.
The biennial state budget approved by the governor and General Assembly in June includes $500,000 to continue the mitigation and remediation program, half of the previous year’s allocation.
Looney said in an email to Engage Louisa in May that the committee is considering several ways to fund the project over the next few years including state support and private grants. He also noted that Louisa County is looking into federal funding.
“I am keeping my eyes open for grant opportunities that we can apply to for additional funding for 2025. We will also work with our state legislators this year to ensure we get funding in the state FY26 budget amendments that will be addressed during the next session of the General Assembly,” Looney said. “The $500k of FY25 state funding along with any funds left over from this year's effort will be used to implement continued phosphorus remediation measures in 2025.”
Louisa County Administrator Christian Goodwin said in an email in May that the county had reached out to Senator Tim Kaine (D-Richmond) to inquire about federal aid and was “waiting to hear back.” Goodwin, who serves as LAAC’s secretary, didn’t publicly provide an update on the county’s conversations with Kaine’s office at the July meeting.
Recount in 5th District Republican primary set for August 1
A recount in the hotly contested Republican primary in the 5th Congressional District is set for Thursday, August 1. The recount will take place in each of the district’s 24 localities with a three-judge recount court convening in Goochland County to rule on challenged ballots, hear any arguments related to the proceeding and ultimately declare the winner.
Rep. Bob Good, a two-term incumbent from Campbell County, requested the recount after losing to state Senator John McGuire of Goochland by just 374 votes out of 62,792 cast in the June 18 primary.
The .6 percent margin separating the candidates entitles Good to a recount, but his campaign will have to foot the bill unless the procedure reverses the results.
Under Virginia law, candidates who lose by no more than one precent can petition for a recount. The government is required to pay when the margin of victory is at or below .5 percent or if the petitioner is declared the winner. In modern Virginia elections, recounts paid for by candidates are rare because of their hefty price tag and the slim likelihood they’ll change the results.
In emails to supporters, Good has said the recount is necessary “to ensure the race is fairly and accurately decided.” He’s suggested without evidence that “data manipulation” and other irregularities may have impacted the results and pushed for a hand recount of all ballots.
While Good will get a recount, all the ballots won’t be hand-counted. In accordance with Virginia law, recount officials will rescan ballots cast in the election with voting machines programmed to “set aside” or reject ballots with overvotes, undervotes and write-ins. Those ballots will be hand-counted to determine their validity. Any other ballots that the machine can’t read and ballots counted by hand on Election Day will also be hand-counted.
While Good and McGuire’s campaigns will have a chance to review a range of election materials including poll books, copies of envelopes for rejected mail-in ballots, reports of problems that occurred at individual precincts on Election Day and statements of results for each precinct, the recount won’t consider the validity of ballots that weren’t counted such as rejected provisionals and mail-ins.
The recount caps a brutal intra-party battle in the 5th that pitted two hard-right candidates against one another, both of whom amplified unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Good is the chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus while McGuire is a six-year veteran of the General Assembly who’s made his loyalty to former President Donald Trump and all things “MAGA” the centerpiece of his political rise.
Miffed that Good initially endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year before backing him after DeSantis dropped out of the race, Trump endorsed McGuire late in the campaign, a move that helped the former Navy SEAL edge Good on Election Day.
The Republican nominee in the 5th will face Democrat Gloria Tinsley Witt in the November 5 General Election and enter the race as a heavy favorite to win the seat. The red-leaning district stretches from Louisa, Albemarle and western Hanover at its northern edge to the North Carolina border. Good defeated Democrat Josh Thornberg by about 15 points to win his second term two years ago.
The recount process
Good filed his recount in Goochland County Circuit Court on July 11, nine days after the State Board of Elections certified the primary results.
Per Virginia law, the recount petition must be filed in the home county of the candidate subject to the challenge with the chief circuit court judge in that county and two other judges appointed by the chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court forming a special recount court to preside over the procedure.
Judge Claude Worrell, the chief judge in Goochland, will head the recount court with Judge J. Christopher Clemens of Salem and Judge Christopher Papile of Newport News also participating.
In a recount order issued on July 23, the judges said that the recount will take place on Thursday, August 1 beginning at 7:30 am in each of the district’s 24 localities. Louisa County Registrar Cris Watkins told Engage Louisa last week that Louisa’s recount will take place at the Office of Elections.
In Louisa and most other localities, the recount will be overseen by two recount coordinators. Louisa’s coordinators will be the two Republican members of the Louisa County Electoral Board, David Koegle and Clayton Hataway, Watkins said.
While the order specifies that each locality is permitted to have at least one recount team, tasked with re-tabulating ballots, Louisa County will have four teams. Each team will include two members, one chosen by Good’s campaign and the other by McGuire’s. Each member must be chosen from a pool of election officers who worked the polls during the June 18 primary, according to Watkins. The campaigns will also choose a roster of alternates to fill in if a team member is unavailable.
Both Good and McGuire are entitled to have one “recount observer” per team. The observers “shall have an unobstructed view of the work of the Recount Officials and may stand behind at a reasonable and non-disruptive distance or sit to the outside of the Recount Officials as they work and may only watch and take notes,” per the order. In addition, legal counsel for each party may attend and observe the recount.
In accordance with Virginia law, the recount teams will run machine-readable ballots through the ballot scanners (aka voting machines), which will be programmed beforehand to “set aside” or reject any ballots that don’t include the names of Good and McGuire ( i.e. ballots cast in the 5th District Democratic primary) as well as “all ballots containing write-ins, overvotes and undervotes.” Both campaigns are entitled to have an observer and legal counsel present for the programming.
Overvotes refer to ballots “on which a voter casts a vote for a greater number of candidates or positions than the number for which he was lawfully entitled to vote,” per Virginia code. When that happens, the votes aren’t counted. Undervotes refer to ballots “on which a voter casts a vote for a lesser number of candidates or positions than the number for which he was lawfully entitled to vote.”
The recount teams will examine the “set aside” ballots to determine their validity. In the case of undervotes, the team will determine if the voter intended to cast a ballot for one candidate or the other. If a voter didn’t fill in the oval indicating a vote for one candidate, the machine wouldn’t be able to record the vote. If the voter instead circled the candidate’s name, that could reflect that they intended to vote for the candidate.
If the recount team can’t agree on the validity of a ballot, the ballot is considered “challenged.” All challenged ballots will be taken to Goochland County by a deputy sheriff and adjudicated by the recount court.
Based on election results, Watkins said that there were only eight ballots with undervotes cast in the 5th District Republican primary in Louisa and none with overvotes. She said that it’s her understanding that there are only about 150 undervotes districtwide, far fewer than McGuire’s 374-vote margin of victory.
Watkins noted that while the final vote totals for each candidate may change based on the determinations of the recount teams and judges, the total number of ballots cast shouldn’t change.
After considering challenged ballots and reviewing the results of the recount from each locality, the recount judges will certify the results and declare the winner.
Paying for the recount
Good’s campaign must pay for the recount unless it reverses the results. At a preliminary hearing on July 18, Worrell estimated that the recount itself would cost about $96,500, according to media reports. That figure doesn’t include the legal fees incurred by the campaigns. Good has said in fundraising emails that his costs could reach $150,000 including attorneys’ fees.
As required by state law, Good’s campaign posted a $3,270 bond when filing for the recount—$10 for every precinct in the 5th. Beyond that, Good is required to pay $115 to each recount official, excluding the general registrars, the general registrars' staff and Electoral Board members, per the order. It’s also on the hook for boxed lunches, coffee, water and snacks.
In addition, Watkins said Good would have to cover other costs including mileage reimbursements for recount officials, vendor fees for programming voting machines and ancillary expenses.
While some political insiders have speculated that Good doesn’t have the money to pay for the recount, his campaign got some welcome news late last week when the Federal Election Commission (FEC) granted his petition to reallocate contributions earmarked for the general election to fund the recount. Individual donors must agree to have their contributions re-designated.
As of June 30, Good had $211,195 in his campaign coffers, according to the FEC, and $68,229 in debt.
Recent recounts in Louisa County
During her 23-year tenure as Louisa’s registrar, Watkins has participated in only two recounts, neither of which reversed the initial results.
One came in 2005 in a statewide contest for attorney general. In that race, Republican Bob McDonnell edged Democrat Creigh Deeds by just 323 votes out of nearly 2 million cast, per the election night tally. Deeds subsequently requested a recount, which determined that McDonnell had won by 360 votes.
The other came in 2013 when Democrat Mark Herring defeated Republican Mark Obenshain in another AG’s race. Based on the election night tally, Herring won by 165 votes out of about 2.2 million cast. The recount, which was still in progress when Obenshain conceded, pushed Herring’s margin of victory to more than 800 votes, according to media reports.
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I feel like Ms. Purcell earned a doctorate in chemistry with this one.