Commission Studying Future Water Supply

The Northern Virginia Regional Commission has launched a study to determine whether there will be enough water in 30 years to meet the residential and commercial needs of fast-growing Northern Virginia.

The study, which includes 23 local jurisdictions as participants, will cover an area of about 1,300 square miles with more than 2.4 million residents.

"The information gathered will be critical for planning a response to droughts, population and commercial growth and potential disasters," said Barbara A. Favola (D), an Arlington County Board member who is chairman of the regional commission. "It is also significant that the entire region has come together on this project rather than developing individual plans."

The study, scheduled to be completed in 2011, will gather information on many issues, including conditions of water resources, use, projected supply and demand, and contingency plans to deal with droughts and shortages. Regional utility companies will also participate in the study, the commission said.

Doug Pickford, director of environmental programs for the commission, said the study was mandated by the General Assembly in response to the severe drought conditions in the region from 1999 to 2002. The study will take into consideration the two major water sources for Northern Virginia, the Potomac River and the Occoquan Reservoir, and will include groundwater resources for wells in rural areas in Loudoun and Prince William counties.

Nearly 90 percent of the Washington region's water comes from the Potomac River, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Although the study is limited to jurisdictions in Virginia, the results will benefit residents of Maryland and the District who depend on the Potomac for their water, Pickford said.

On average the demand for water in the Washington region is about 490 million gallons a day, according to Norm Goulet, senior environmental planner for the commission. A 2005 study by the Council of Governments predicted that the demand would rise to about 572 million gallons a day by 2025.

"It is beneficial to everybody," Pickford said of the study. "Having a good idea of whether we have a future water supply is certainly a no-brainer, but this also forces everybody to take a good, hard look at water resources."

Pickford said the regional approach to conducting the study makes more sense than having each jurisdiction perform its own study.

"Water is really blind to jurisdictional boundaries," he said.

In addition, some smaller municipalities might not have the resources or personnel to conduct a study. Participating commission members will pay for the $420,000 study.

"I think it does make a lot of sense to do this regionally," Pickford said. "You look at a town like Clifton [in Fairfax County], for instance. They don't have the staffing resources to undertake this individually."

He said some information on future water supply and demand is already available.

"During that drought period, the metropolitan region really came together to study the issue, and so some of the elements are in place," Pickford said. "It will be just a matter of repackaging the information to meet the state mandate."

The real challenge of the study, he said, will be the period it covers. Some jurisdictions might have 5-, 10- and 20-year plans, but few, if any, cover 30 years.

Pickford said the study will project a period of three decades because if officials determine that the region needs additional water resources and reservoirs must be added, it will take years to get through the permitting process. "That is the level of detail that the state is looking to capture," he said.

The study officially began last week when representatives of the 23 jurisdictions gathered to sign a memorandum of agreement. Each jurisdiction must have a public hearing on the study and formally approve its participation, Pickford said.