By RUSTY DENNEN

After two years of discussions aimed at acquiring an easement needed to complete the Rappahannock Canal project, Fredericksburg is trying another approach.

The city will consider using eminent domain to get the land it needs for a pump to fill the canal with water at the former Embrey Power Plant off Caroline Street.

"We've had negotiations with the landowners and we thought we had something worked out," City Attorney Kathleen Dooley said Wednesday.

But that didn't happen.

The first step will be a public hearing, scheduled for Oct. 24, when Dooley will outline the city's case. If the City Council agrees, it will vote to move forward and the issue would go to court.

The power plant property is where Fredericksburg and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers want to install the pump to move water from the Rappahannock River into the 2-mile canal.

It's the final component of the Embrey Dam removal project. When the dam several miles upstream was breached in February 2004, it cut off the canal's upstream water supply.

City officials want to maintain water in the canal for aesthetic and health reasons.

The power station property is owned by C&G Investment Properties. Efforts to reach Hugh C. Cosner, a principal of the firm and former Spotsylvania County supervisor, were unsuccessful.

Cosner and his partner, the late Ray Glazebrook, bought the power plant years ago with the intention of sprucing it up for commercial development.

Dooley said the city wants to acquire a little over half an acre in three parcels for a permanent easement, and sites for pumping water out of the river and into the canal.

The canal winds from the former dam site near Fall Hill Avenue and ends at Princess Anne Street. A flume runs underground, along Ford Street, to the power plant property.

The plant, idle for more than 30 years, has pumps inside. But they are not suitable for refilling the canal.

Aerators were installed along the canal bottom last year to keep the water from becoming stagnant. The city had been trying to obtain an easement to finish the canal work.

"The Corps of Engineers is ready to go once the city acquires the land," Dooley said.

Runoff from storms and pumps will be used to keep the canal full when the project is complete. For now, stormwater has been slowly filling the waterway.

Hundreds of people live along the canal, which has been little more than a mud hole since Embrey Dam was breached.

To reach RUSTY DENNEN:540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com