Sunday, April 3, 2022

Comments on PW Digital Gateway and Comp Plan Changes

The streams, rivers and groundwater in the Occoquan Watershed in Prince William County are at risk of degradation from PW Digital Gateway,  and the land use and zoning changes in the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update.  As demand for local lands and resources increases and landowners seek to maximize the sale value of their land, developers look to create massive industrial development in the Rural Crescent where there is inadequate road systems, no stormwater infrastructure, no public water supply, no available source for cooling water supply, no sewage, etc.  

This development in the northern portion of the Rural Crescent threatens the health of the Occoquan watershed and the very sustainability and affordability of the drinking water supply for Northern Virginia. When an undeveloped or generally open rural area is developed stormwater runoff increases in quantity and velocity washing away stream banks, flooding roads and buildings carrying fertilizers, oil and grease, and road salt to the Occoquan Reservoir.

Increased development in the Bull Run and Occoquan watershed as outlined in the PW Digital Gateway CPA, the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update will increase paved surfaces and runoff and decreased forested and agricultural land. The result will be increase salinity and chemical and sediment contamination.

The salinity in the reservoir has been rising over time and may be reaching a critical stage.  The rising salt in the reservoir is primarily from watershed runoff during wet weather and reclaimed water from UOSA during dry weather. Sodium concentration in the reclaimed water is higher than in outflow from the two watersheds right now and will rise with the increase in blowdown from data center cooling and increased population density. However, increasing paved areas increases the salt runoff into the watershed.

The only way to remove salt from the drinking water supply is to invest billions of dollars (from your water rates) in building and installing desalination equipment in the region’s water treatment plants which are not currently capable of removing salt from the source water. There is no other source of water to supply our area. The costs to add treatment lines at Fairfax Water to keep the Occoquan Potable is estimated to cost between $1 and $2 billion. This is a cost that will be borne by the water rate payers including the 350,000 in Prince William County.

Prince William County did not even consider the impact of the proposed changes to the quality, availability and sustainability water supply as they are required to do under the Comprehensive Plan law. Before we do irreversible harm to the ecology and our regional drinking water supply, we need to look at what the impacts of planned changes will be to the water supply.

Fairfax Water has taken the unusual step to ask that Prince William County convene the Occoquan Basin Policy Board and oversee a Comprehensive Study of the proposed PW Digital Gateway CPA and the 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update to evaluate their impact on water quality in the Occoquan Reservoir before any action is taken. The cost to restore the basin and treat the water is in the billions of dollars that will be borne by us, the residents who remain.

The Occoquan Watershed Model was developed over decades to evaluate the impact of land use decisions and compare potential land use scenarios and their impact on the Occoquan Reservoir water quality. Prince William County helped pay for the creation of that model, yet did not use it to evaluate the wholesale change in the land use of the county. 

Prince William County failed also to consider the impact of the proposed zoning changes to the quality, availability and sustainability of the water supply as they are required to do under the Comprehensive Plan law.   Nor did they consider the impact on meeting goals for the Chesapeake Bay pollution diet.

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