About Us

60 Years of Service

Origination

The Augusta County Service Authority officially came into being on March 15, 1966 when the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved our Articles of Incorporation.  Our Charter was to centralize the provision of water and sewer service to County residents.

Board of Directors

The original five Board Members were W.L. Morrison (who was chosen as the first Chair) C.B. Cottingham, Harold Garber, Robert Warner and W.B. Speck.  That Board of Directors presided over the organization’s first meeting on March 24, 1966. Even though it began with just five members, in 1974 the Board was expanded to its current seven-member size. Over the years, our Board of Directors has had 54 different Members and 17 different Chairs.  Our current Board is our Chair, Dr. Andy Middleton (North River), Our Vice-Chair, Mr. Garry Gordon (Middle River), Mr. Mike Shull (Riverheads), Mr. Tim Simmons (Pastures), Mr. Allen Dahl (Beverley Manor), Mr. Matthew Egeli (Wayne) and Mr. Harvey Almarode (South River).

Administration

At that first Board meeting in 1966, the Board named Mr. William Hart (formerly the County Engineer) to be their first "Engineer-Director".  Mr. Hart continued in this role until October of 1990 when he unexpectedly passed away. On May 1, 1991 Richard Moring was hired as the second Executive Director of the Service Authority.  Richard served as Executive Director until his departure in November, 1996.  At this point Ken Fanfoni (Director of Operations) was appointed as Interim Executive Director and was subsequently confirmed as our third Executive Director two months later.  Ken served for the next 20 years, retiring in 2017.  In August of that year, Phil Martin became the fourth Executive Director of this organization.

What Really Matters

The ACSA began its first year with just 11 employees, but nearly doubled in size the next year, adding 10 more.  Also, when formed in 1966, the Service Authority had just two projects:  1) installation of a new water system in the Dooms area and 2) a water system to serve the new Staunton Shopping Center. Later in 1966 the newly formed Authority agreed to take over operations of the County-owned Verona and South River Sanitary Districts.  The Authority served about 2,400 customers then through two primary water sources (Coles Run Reservoir and Berry Farm Spring) and took wastewater only at the old Verona WWTP.

Things have changed just a little over the past 60 years. Augusta Water (as we became known in 2023) now serves over 16,000 water customers and over 9,000 wastewater customers. That equates to about 55% of the County residents.  We operate 10 separate water systems, including 19 separate sources and 7 water filtration plants.  We operate 9 wastewater treatment plants ranging in size from 35,000 to 6.8 million gallons per day.  We have nearly $260M in physical assets.  We also operate the Augusta Regional Landfill under contract to Augusta County and the Cities of Staunton and Waynesboro, where we take in approximately 155,000 tons of waste per year.  We have 128 budgeted positions with highly skilled employees holding licenses as Commercial Drivers, Master and Journeyman Electricians, Water Operators, Wastewater Operators, Solid Waste Operators, Accountants, Engineers and Surveyors, along with many other professional certifications.

Over the years the name and logo of the organization has changed.  The names of Board Members and Executive Directors have changed, but the commitment to providing high quality water to our customers and protecting our environment by treating wastewater and disposing of solid waste has certainly remained the same.  We look forward to at least another 60 years of serving the residents of Augusta County and the Cities of Staunton and Waynesboro.