Chartered in 1957 by the Virginia State Corporation Commission as a public, non-profit water utility, Fairfax Water is governed by a 10-member Board of Directors composed of Fairfax County citizens and appointed by the elected Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Fairfax Water has the lowest commodity rate in the Washington metropolitan region and is one of only a handful of water utilities in the
country to receive an AAA rating from the top three financial rating services. The Virginia Department of Health regulates Fairfax Water’s water quality according to regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency and based on the Safe Drinking Water Act passed by the U.S. Fairfax Water is Virginia’s largest water utility and one of the 25 largest water utilities in the country, serving one out of every five Virginians who obtain their water from public utilities. Nearly two million people in the Northern Virginia communities of Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Fort Belvoir, Herndon, Dulles, Vienna, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax City depend on Fairfax Water for superior drinking water. Fairfax Water provides water that is treated at four different locations. Fairfax Water owns and operates the two largest water treatment facilities in Virginia with an average daily water production of 163 million gallons and combined maximum capacity of 376 million gallons per day. treatment plant is at the northern tip of Fairfax County and the Frederick P. Griffith Jr. treatment plant is on the southern border of Fairfax County. Fairfax Water also purchases water from the McMillan and Dalecarlia treatment plants in Washington DC. They are part of the Washington Aqueduct, owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Fairfax Water draws raw water from two primary sources: the Potomac River and the Occoquan Reservoir, which is fed by the Occoquan River. The four treatment facilities feed an interconnected distribution system that includes 3,971 miles of water mains, 28,827 fire hydrants, and 97,683 valves.
