Falls Church Water Company Upgrading an Aging Infrastructure

With more than 120,000 customers and more projected by the year 2050, the water mains operated by the City of Falls Church Water Utility company are aging.

Sixty-five percent of the pipes in the 80-year-old system are made of cast iron, which means occasional breaks happen. As the pipes break, the water company replaces them with newer pipes that prevent breaks from happening. The cast iron pipes in the system have outlived their 50- to 60-year lifespan.

"We have a capital improvement budget each year of $2 million," said Rodney Collins, chief engineer with the Department of Environmental Services. "The cast iron pipes are susceptible to breaks. With the ductile iron pipe, it will expand and contract and not break."

Brenda Creel, director of the Department of Public Utilities, said the city is improving the utility's technology. One of the latest upgrades to the water company’s infrastructure was the deployment of an automated meter reading system. The system is designed to accurately read meters and cut back on manpower needed.

Creel said the project cost roughly $6 million. Between fiscal years 2012 and 2016, Creel said $33 million in Capital Improvement Program projects, including the $2 million annually for repair and replacement of aging pipes, have been budgeted. Creel said the CIP budget is separate from the operating budget. In FY 2010, the water company brought in more than $19 million in revenue. That amount includes revenue from water sales to the Town of Vienna, Creel said.

Getting the Water

Eight pumping stations push 6 billion gallons of water through more than 500 miles of water mains. The stations, including the Chesterbrook Pumping Station in McLean, are responsible for pumping millions of gallons of treated water into homes from the Washington Aqueduct daily.

"The water we get from the Washington Aqueduct is already treated when it gets to us," Collins said. "We don't have any water treatment centers in our system."

Creel said 92 percent of the 120,000 customers the water company serve live in Fairfax County with the rest living in the City of Falls Church. She said all of the customers pay the same rate across the board. The current water commodity charge is $3.03 per 1,000 gallons.

When water mains break, 21 people are on call to rush to repair the pipe and restore service to customers.

Robert Goff, director of operations for the Department of Environmental Services, said the system averages 140 water mains breaks a year. He said the cast iron pipes, which have a 50-60 year lifespan, are replaced if they can’t be repaired.

"We do this year in and year out," Goff said of replacing the pipes. "It's an ongoing challenge to keep it going. It takes us four to five hours to have service back in order, and we respond in 45 minutes."

Expanding to Tyson’s

As the , the City of Falls Church water company is exploring ways to improve the infrastructure to get water to new clients. The water company, which already has existing infrastructure in Tyson’s already, has had to relocate some of the pipes because of HOT Lanes, Dulles Metrorail and the Gallows Road and Route 9 construction projects.

Collins said expanding to Tyson's would take extensive planning. The Tyson's project is included in a water master plan that extends into the year 2050, he said.

"We're investigating larger pipes out there and more pumping stations," Collins said.

Creel said the water company plans and projects out by years when considering growth in the system.

"We have a master plan in progress that helps up project," Creel said. "We're meeting our demand in our plan."

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