Out in Great Falls, in the well-to-do enclaves set amid the woods and pastures near the Potomac River, some people think even the tap water is better.
Unlike millions of others in the Washington region, residents get their water not from municipal plants but from wells hundreds of feet below ground.
"Absolutely, it tastes better. I won't drink the water in my office," said Richard Bliss, a lawyer who works in the District and lives in Great Falls. His home tap water, he said, has "zero chemical taste."
But big changes -- both to the water supply and the semirural setting -- may be afoot, many Great Falls residents fear.
The Fairfax County Water Authority has proposed laying water pipes to a subdivision north of Georgetown Pike into the heart of the community, a move residents believe would enable developers to build more homes in the area, where zoning currently allows no more than one home for every two acres.
Representatives of the Water Authority describe the pipeline down Arnon Chapel Road as a sensible and cost-saving measure that will serve only the Riverside Manor subdivision and will not, by itself, release a flood of development.
But angst over the pipeline has been enough to stir a contentious community meeting and launch a petition drive over the weekend that netted 500 signatures in just six hours. This week, hundreds of postcards are wending their way to Fairfax County leaders, according to the organized opposition.
"We view this as a line in the sand," said Bliss, one of the organizers of the opposition.
In some of the most exclusive suburban settings around Washington, a lack of public water and sewers is viewed not as a hardship but as a mark of distinction, a sign of an area's "rural" character and a means of keeping it that way. High-density development is generally impossible without sewer and water connections.
For many Great Falls residents, Georgetown Pike has been viewed as a dividing line between the areas on well water and those served by county water. The county proposal would stretch a 12-inch water main roughly 1 1/2 miles through the area north of Georgetown Pike.
"Development almost inevitably follows piped water," said Eleanor Anderson, an organizer.
The county's proposal arises from a long-standing anomaly in the Water Authority's system, which serves 1.2 million people in Northern Virginia. Although most Great Falls homes north of Georgetown Pike draw their water from private wells, the 53-home Riverside Manor subdivision gets its water from two public wells operated by the authority, the only well system in its network.
The operation of the Riverside Manor wells is a money loser for the authority, according to water officials, costing about $73,000 a year while bringing in about $7,600 from those customers.
The wells have not run dry, officials say, but at times they have failed to produce enough water. Other times, there have been equipment failures. Water has had to be trucked into the system some years, most recently in 1999, officials said.
The Riverside Manor well water will not meet a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule for radon, either, officials said.
"Basically, we are trying to improve the water service," said Jeanne Bailey, spokesperson for the authority, who noted that its water has "come out on top" in taste tests.
The cost of the new water main tying Riverside Manor into the county water system is estimated at $855,000, she said.
Even some residents of Riverside Manor, who are supposed to be the immediate beneficiaries of the line, oppose the project.
"They said they're going to improve the quality and quantity of the water," said Harry Miller, a retired physician who lives there. "I don't buy that at all."
But the primary fear is what will follow the pipe. "It's going to bring development here, I'm sure," he said.
