reviewed Fairfax County Web site : http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/fairfax.htm
 

excerpt from document relating to Water:

http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/dmb/cip/water.pdf
downloaded on 9/27/2000

for full text as downloaded see: water.pdf

excerpt:

WATER SUPPLY
ISSUES
Residents of Fairfax County receive public water service from one of
three water agencies: Fairfax County Water Authority, City of Fairfax
Department of Transit and Utilities, and the Falls Church Department
of Public Utilities. (The Towns of Vienna and Herndon, while
operating their own water distribution systems, purchase water from the
City of Falls Church and the Fairfax County Water Authority,
respectively. In terms of building major capital facilities to meet water
supply needs, the towns are dependent on these two water agencies.)
Using recent estimated averages, the Fairfax County Water Authority
serves seventy-nine percent of Fairfax County residents, Falls Church
serves thirteen percent, the City of Fairfax one percent, and the
remaining seven percent of the residents receive water from their own
individual wells.
While Fairfax County has neither direct administrative nor budgetary
control over water suppliers, the importance of water facilities to
County planning is recognized. The Board of Supervisors has entered
into an agreement with the Fairfax County Water Authority which
requires Board approval of all capital projects undertaken by the Water
Authority. The Fairfax County Water Authority projects included in
this CIP represent a program guided by the objectives of the
Comprehensive Plan and endorsed by the Board of Supervisors. In the
interest of providing a complete picture to the citizens of Fairfax
County, the independent CIPs of Falls Church and Fairfax City are also
presented. Inclusion in this document represents neither concurrence
nor approval of Fairfax County of the individual projects proposed by
Falls Church or Fairfax City. They are presented for information
purposes only.
Fairfax County Water Authority
Sources of Water: Principal sources of water are the Occoquan
Reservoir and the Potomac River. Supplementary sources of water
include 2 public well systems and purchased water from the Cities of
Fairfax and Falls Church, Town of Vienna, Loudoun County, and
Arlington County.
Occoquan: The Occoquan Reservoir is impounded by two gravity-type
concrete dams across the Occoquan River, a few miles upstream of its
confluence with the Potomac River. The low-level dam was
constructed in 1950 and the high-level dam was constructed about
3,000 feet further upstream in 1957. The drainage area of the
Occoquan River above the dam is approximately 595 square miles.
The dam impounds about 8.5 billion gallons of water. The reservoir,
when filled to the crest of the dam at Elevation 122, mean sea level, has
a surface area of about 1,840 acres. The present Occoquan River
supply has a safe yield of about 65 MGD (million gallons per day).
Potomac: The Potomac River Source of supply has its raw water intake
located near Sugarland Run at Lowes Island in Loudoun County. The
Potomac River at the Authority intake is not impounded.
The State of Maryland has jurisdiction over the withdrawal,
appropriation and use of water from the Potomac River and regulates
all users, including the Authority. The Authority has been issued a
permit for an average Potomac withdrawal of 100 MGD and maximum
withdrawal of 150 MGD. Increases in permitted withdrawals will be
requested from time to time as needs require.