As a result of a legal consent order between Arlington County Government and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) that enforces EPA clean water standards, Arlington County was forced in 2001 to upgrade its sewage treatment plant that was sending treated effluent with high levels of nitrogen into the Potomac and ultimately into the Cheaspeake Bay. So much for Arlington’s reputation as “protector of the Bay.”

Rather than boldly stepping forward to improve Arlington wastewater, the County Democratic Board had to be dragged into a legal consent order by DEQ and EPA to meet its clean water obligations to help save the Bay. Is this the Democrats commitment to the enviroment–wait till you are being sued–to clean up your act?

Nevertheless, this welcome step in markedly improving Arlington wastewater may be over-whelmed by the relentless development in Arlington that brings in more thirsty commercial and residential developments. High rise buildings produce prodigious amounts of waste water from their cooling towers and toilets and sinks.

For example, there are a half-dozen high rise building being built in the Potomac Yards area on Jeff Davis Highway just outside the gates of the Arlington treatment facility on S. Glebe Road that will add alone 0.5 million gallons of waste water daily taking up 1 percent of Arlington treatment capacity.
Every high rise building built in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor adds similar large amounts of wastewater.

Question: Will continue commercial and residential development in Arlington overwhelm Arlington’s new sewage treatment plant that will not even come on line until 2011?

Arlington County is modernizing its sewage treatment plant (”water pollution control plant”) in an elaborate $560 program that will bring a new plant on line by 2011 (within 3 years). The plant will reduce the nitrogen in treated sewage from 8 mg/liter to the EPA standard of 3 mg/liter. (See http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/environmentalservices for the fact sheet).

The capacity of the new plant will be 40 million gallons daily, up from a listed 30 million gallon capacity currently. Currently the plant operates at 100 percent or more of this 30 million gallons; during heavy rainfall, the plant has to release untreated sewage. So, actually the plant capacity is closer to 32 milion gallons daily or higher. Twenty percent of sewage treated comes from Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax County–so only 80 percent of the sewage comes from Arlington.

The EPA requires that treatment plants operate at no more than 95 percent of full capacity. For the new plant, this means a new usable capacity of 38 million gallons. The county indicates that the new 40 million capacity expands current plant of 30 million gallons by 33 percent, and will meet expected Arlington’s needs until the year 2020 or for the next 12 years.

However, if one uses 32 million gallons as the current capacity and considerd that only 38 million of the new 40 million gallon capacity should be used following EPA standards, the increase in capacity is closer to 19 percent. The new plant comes on line in 3 years from now.

Will the 19-percent de facto capacity increase last for the next 12 years or will it be overwhelmed as more water-intensive development occurs? Then, how much will Arlington taxpayers have to spend to upgrade the plant in 2020, and where will it be built since the current plant site is now fully taken up by the new facility?