(By Tom Jackman, Washington
Post, 12 April 2013)
Probably the next-to-last time you will see this
map. It shows whom everyone in the footprint of Fairfax County gets their water
from, and how much they pay for it. Color Fairfax City and Vienna blue now,
with Falls Church likely to follow. Two-thirds of the Great
Water Wars of Fairfax County are now over. The city council of Fairfax City
voted unanimously on Tuesday to start buying its water from Fairfax Water, hand
over its system and get out of the water business itself. On Wednesday, the
city and Fairfax Water signed their pact.
The town of
Vienna has already agreed to start purchasing water from Fairfax, though it
will continue to maintain its own system. And both Fairfax City and Vienna are
dropping their federal lawsuit against Fairfax County. The county had declared
that it would set the prices for water provided to county residents by Fairfax
City, Vienna and Falls Church City. Those three jurisdictions responded with a
suit, and the Great Water Wars were on.
Falls Church,
which fought for many years with Fairfax County over water, is the last
holdout, pending a city voter referendum in November. But they have agreed in
principle to sell their water utility to Fairfax Water for $40 million if the
citizens back it. Falls Church has been charging their Fairfax County residents
50 percent more than Fairfax Water was charging. Water rates for Vienna,
Fairfax City and Falls Church customers all should decline noticeably in a
couple of years, when everyone is hooked in to the Fairfax Water system, and
which has more modern water treatment technology than the others.
Fairfax City has
agreed to pay $20 million, plus its system, as a buy-in to Fairfax Water. But
it retains its reservoir and treatment system at Goose Creek in Loudoun. The
city is hoping it can sell that and at least break even, if not wind up in the
black, on the whole deal. The alternative to all this was renovating the city’s
$50 million system, which would have added more cost to what was already the
most expensive water in Fairfax County. In 2011, city residents were paying
$103 per quarter, compared with $57.31 for Fairfax Water customers. And it’s
gone up since then, city residents say.
No comments:
Post a Comment