NCSA’s Wintergreen Wastewater Treatment Plant is just off Wintergreen Drive near the Wintergreen Resort Services offices and shop. [map] NCSA has 2,415 water customers and 2,328 sewer customers on Wintergreen Mountain. NCSA does not serve Stoney Creek.
The output into Pond Hollow Creek from Wintergreen mountain’s wastewater plant was found to be “drinking water quality,” according to the March 2025 board minutes of the Nelson County Service Authority, quoting Stevie Steele of the engineering firm CHA.
The treatment plant’s new state-of-the-art system using the membrane bioreactors which made the high-quality wastewater possible was a long time coming, and it didn’t come cheap or easily.
The groundbreaking for the $18.5 million plant was in March 2022, but the project began in 2014. The project was slated to be completed in December 2023. While the plant started working as it should in late 2024, later NCSA board reports said consultants and contractors were still addressing "discrepancies."
Running the water and sewer operation on the mountain isn’t cheap
The 2025 water rate is $52.90 for 0-4,000 gallons, which is the base rate. The new rate for sewer was set at $80.15 on July 1, 2025 for 0-4,000 gallons, which is the base rate. Any consumption over 4,000 gallons is charged an overage fee of $12.00 per 1,000 gallons for water and $11.30 per 1,000 gallons for sewer, according to the Nelson County Service Authority.
The Wintergreen WWTP was facing a Voluntary Consent Order with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality due to levels of nitrates and phosphates going into Pond Hollow Creek that exceeded updated regulations.
“The purpose of this project is to replace the worn-out package plant that has served the Wintergreen community very well since 1973 and to increase the level of treatment to achieve compliance with the reduced Ammonia permit limit as well as be proactive with the Chesapeake Bay Protection Program,” the Nelson County Service Authority website explained.
NCSA says it sees the new technology as being able to meet current and future compliance requirements.
The primary contractor was English Construction, based in Lynchburg. The silicon-carbide membrane bioreactors used at the Wintergreen plant came from Ovivo.
The old Clow Extended Aeration Activated Sludge wastewater treatment plant (pictured here) was first built in 1973. Wintergreen Mountain’s new system uses aeration basins that feed aerobic digesters and then filters this water using membrane bioreactors. The system is designed to handle 300,000 gallons per day.
Photo: Jennifer Fitzgerald/NCSÅ
The mountain wastewater treatment system is owned and operated by the Nelson County Service Authority; George Miller is Executive Director. “Neither the resort nor WPOA has any oversight of the system. We’re customers for water and sewer like everyone else,” notes Wintergreen Property Owners Association Executive Director Jay Roberts. NCSA was created by the Nelson County Board of Supervisors in 1986.
“The circumstances for the Voluntary Consent Order is because of our proactive planning,” the NCSA’s website notes. The plant management was able to avoid a formal “Notice of Violation” and any financial penalties.
Landscaping and paving around the plant are scheduled to be completed this summer.
From the English Construction website: The work includes the furnishing of the labor, materials and equipment and the construction of the following: Replacement of the existing metal package plants (three separate trains) and metal aerobic digesters with a new membrane bioreactor system (two trains) and two aerobic digesters; new coarse screen building, new fine screen building, new ultraviolet disinfection system, new non-potable water system, miscellaneous manhole and tankage modifications; appurtenant piping, site work, utilities and facilities. The membrane bioreactor system has been pre-selected.
Updated on May 30, 2025 with new rates sewer rate.
-Charles Batchelor
