Fairfax County Water Authority (FCWA or more recently Fairfax Water for short) is the main

water company The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water industry doe ...

in the

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

region of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and one of the four major water providers in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

(the other three being Virginia American Water, the

Washington Aqueduct The Washington Aqueduct is an aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C., and parts of its suburbs, using water from the Potomac River. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Aqueduc ...

and the

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water) is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland except ...

). Fairfax Water serves most of the populated areas of

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

, and also serves neighboring communities of Alexandria,

Prince William County, Virginia Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manassas ...

and

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun C ...

through an interconnection with Virginia American Water, which purchases water through

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

agreements. It serves drinking water to 1.5 million people. FCWA does not provide

sanitary sewer A sanitary sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings (but not stormwater) to a sewage treatment plant or disposal. Sanitary sewers are a type of gravity sewer and are part of an o ...

service; this is left to the individual jurisdictions it serves.

History

FCWA traces its history back to the 1950s. At the time, Fairfax County was a mostly rural county that was quickly becoming suburban, and was served by a number of small, privately owned water companies and private wells. This posed a problem in the first half of the decade, as hot summers and increased demand often caused the wells to run dry. The

Alexandria Water Company The Alexandria Water Company (AWCO) is the water company of the city and the governorate (province) of Alexandria, Egypt. It was founded in 1860 as a private company and it operated as such for more than 100 years before it was nationalized under t ...

, which served

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

and its immediate suburbs, had opened a treatment plant on the

Occoquan River The Occoquan River is a tributary of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, where it serves as part of the boundary between Fairfax and Prince William counties. The river is a scenic area, and several local high schools and colleges use the r ...

near

Occoquan, Virginia Occoquan () is a town in Prince William County, Virginia. The population was 934 at the 2010 United States Census. The town is a suburb of Washington, D.C. and is adjacent to Woodbridge. The current mayor is Earnest W. Porta Jr. History Occoqua ...

in 1954, but even that wasn't enough, and both the county government and the city of Alexandria were looking for a solution to the problem together. Fairfax became interested in buying the

Annandale Water Company Annandale is a name for several places around the world: United Kingdom *Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway, a strath in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland Australia *Annandale, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Annandale, Queensland, a suburb o ...

, a medium-sized utility in the heart of Fairfax that, by 1955, served about 3000 homes at the time and had severe problems with water supply. Alexandria was interested in buying Alexandria Water (a privately owned system controlled by

American Water Works Company American Water is an American public utility company that, through its subsidiaries, provides water and wastewater services in the United States. It offers water and wastewater services to approximately 1,700 communities in 14 states serving a po ...

) and its ''Virginia Water'' subsidiary, citing its own water supply problems. By the end of the summer, Fairfax was ready to buy the Annandale system when they were blocked from doing so by a lawsuit from a group of subscribers, who were upset that the move may increase their water rates. FCWA has since expanded its filtration capacity several times, with the introduction of new plants at Lorton and Occoquan in the 1960s, and a new plant near

Herndon, Virginia Herndon is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area of the United States. The population was 23,292 at the 2010 census. In 2020, the population was estimated to be 24,532, which makes it the largest of three i ...

in 1982. A new plant that will replace all three of the Lorton and Occoquan plants was under construction and expected to go online in the fall of 2005.

References

* Reikowsky, Ralph. "Alexandria, Fairfax Study Their Water Problems", ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', 23 January 1955, page G11. * "Storage Dam Planned in Va.", ''The Washington Post'', 16 August 1955, page 13.

External links

Official site
Water companies of the United States Fairfax County, Virginia

History

See also

References

External links