Fairfax County is continuing to contemplate moving the Colvin Run septage disposal site a few miles away to Hunter Mill Road, but their concerns are not necessarily the same as the haulers who make about 6,000 annual trips to the dumping tank.
County officials said in February they are considering closing the Colvin Run site, in operation for more than 40 years, and building a new one at Lake Fairfax Maintenance Area 6, a county-owned parcel on Hunter Mill Road on the Reston/Vienna border. The Colvin Run site is one of two in the county.
The county has 21,000 homes that are on septic tank and not public sewers. Those septic tanks must be cleaned out every five years, with waste hauled to Colvin Run or the Norman Cole site in the south end of the county. The septage sites are also used for restaurant grease disposal and portable toilet cleanout.
The officials say the Colvin Run site, which gets 6,000 visits annually (or about 22 trips per day), is outdated, its smells, and has a pipe too small to accommodate waste. It is also in a flood area and there is no way for trucks to turn around.
The county looked into the move after a handful of Colvin Run-area residents complained.
But the potential for the Reston-area site has many residents on this side of Route 7 very upset. Some of their concerns came to light at a community meeting six weeks ago. Among them: increase in traffic on Hunter Mill Road, which already can’t handle trucks going over a one-land bridge; proximity to home and a stream; concern that the septage dump stay closer to the 21,000 homes it serves, mostly in Great Falls and Oakton; and irritation that the move was presented as almost a done deal rather than a community input session.
The county says it researched six area sites, including renovating Colvin Run, for a new facility. The criteria: Proximity to a 30-inch sewer pipe; off a major road; outside of a floodplain; away from public use (but on county land); and an available footprint to build a secure, odor-controlled facility where trucks could drive in a loop rather than have to back up to leave.
At the meeting, they said Colvin Run could not be renovated. However, a report by environmental consultants Hazen and Sawyer, hired by the county for this project, said it may be feasible.
Reston Association’s Board of Directors has asked Fairfax County Supervisors Sharon Bulova to fund a stream restoration and sanitary sewer line stabilization and maintenance project near Lake Audubon “as soon as possible.”
The county is in the process of formulating its Fiscal Year 2017 budget, and RA President Ellen Graves says that repair costs to the sewer line — owned by the county but exposed and presenting an environmental danger to Reston residents — need to be included.
The problem has been exacerbated, RA says, by runoff from FCPS’ South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes Middle School, which sit uphill from the erosion site behind Wakerobin Lane and Cedar Cove Cluster.
“This is a unique situation, which warrants a quick response from the County, the Wastewater Management System, Fairfax County Public Schools, and Reston Association,” Graves wrote in a recent letter to Bulova, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and other county officials.
A presentation at the January RA Board meeting showed that erosion has contributed to the exposure of eight sewer lines in the hillside leading from South Lakes Drive to Lake Audubon. Read More
General Dynamics Information Technology has been awarded a contract to develop, deploy and provide maintenance and support for a Next Generation 911 (NG911) solution for Fairfax County.
GD’s system will support the five primary and secondary 911 answering points in the county and enable Fairfax County emergency services to accept and route emergency 911 information from a variety of sources, a GD release said.
Fairfax County is seeking to replace its longstanding emergency call-handling system with a secure, IP-based NG9-1-1 system that permits emergency service requests from existing public networks through new and emerging modes of communication and devices. Read More
Fairfax County’s population of homeless people has decreased significantly since 2008, according to the county’s latest Point in Time Count.
The Point in Time Count is an annual survey where county personnel take to the streets, the woods and other areas to determine who is homeless.
The Point in Time was conducted this year on Jan. 28 — just a few days after the big blizzard.
Officials found 145 fewer people who are experiencing homelessness than it did in 2015. There were 1,059 people who were literally homeless in the Fairfax-Falls Church community: 577 were people in families, 482 of them were single adults.
It also found that there were 772 fewer people who are homeless than there were in 2008 — a decrease of 42 percent, says Dean Klein, Director of the Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
“It is so exciting to see our nonprofits,the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness and other county, faith organizations and businesses working effectively to end homelessness,” said Klein. “It is especially encouraging to see reductions of persons who are literally homeless in many areas. This means our innovative strategies are working and that when we work together we can end homelessness in our community.”
Klein said several factors have contributed to the decline. Among them: a countywide emphasis on homelessness prevention and housing availability, as well as an unified approach to homeless services with the nonprofits and community partners.
The Point in Time report also shows there is still work to be done. The survey found an increase in older people who are homeless as well as a significant amount of single adults who are homeless:
- Increase in Older Homeless Population: 139 single adults were over 55 years old in 2016; 123 were counted in 2015.
- Significant Amount of Homeless Single Adults: Even after a slight decline this year there were still 482 homeless single adults.
The survey found 179 families who are homeless. That includes more than 22 children under age 11. See a detailed demographic chart on Fairfax County’s website.
The county says the primary reduction in numbers from 2015 to 2016 was in families in emergency shelters. There were 95 families in 2015 and 64 in 2016, representing a change of 106 individuals. There was a 33-percent decline in the number of families in emergency shelter. Shelter capacity was decreased, there were no families in motels used as overflow on the night of the count, and there were vacancies in emergency shelters, both mainstream and domestic violence shelters.
The county did not release a breakdown by geographic location.
If your tap water has a funny taste to it in the next few weeks, don’t be alarmed.
Fairfax Water is warning customers ahead of time that it is spring hydrant flushing season.
Each spring, Fairfax Water flushes its water mains by opening fire hydrants and allowing them to flow freely for a short period of time.
For most of the county, this will start in late March.
So why the funny smell and taste? In the spring, Fairfax Water slightly changes its water treatment process, switching from using combined chlorine to free chlorine. Free chlorine is quicker acting than combined, which allows it to react with sediments suspended during flushing, officials said in a release.
The chlorine taste and odor in your drinking water happens while free chlorine is washing its way through. Flushing also may result in temporary discoloration and the presence of sediment in the water, Fairfax Water.
But the water is still safe to drink.
“If you are especially sensitive to the taste and odor of chlorine, try keeping an open container of drinking water in your refrigerator,” says Fairfax Water. “But remember, drinking water has a shelf life! Change out the water in your refrigerated container weekly.”
If you have questions about this program or the work being conducted in your area, call Fairfax Water at 703-698-5613.
Fairfax County is considering relocating one of its two county septage receiving sites from Colvin Run in Great Falls to the Lake Fairfax Park Maintenance Area 6 on Hunter Mill Road in Reston/Vienna.
There are 21,000 homes in this area of the county, mostly in Great Falls and Oakton, whose septic tanks must be emptied into a sewer line once every five years (or about 6,000 visits to the current site annually). The current location also receives regular deliveries of restaurant grease.
Officials said the current site floods, smells and has a pipe that is too small to receive the sewage. After looking at six area locations, they determined the Lake Fairfax one is the most appropriate place to built a new, secure, odor-controlled facility. That land is on park land, but not in an area of the park accessible to visitors.
However, Hunter Mill-area residents said at a recent meeting that Hunter Mill is the exact wrong place to build the sewage dump. Among the issues: Two-lane Hunter Mill Road, and its one-lane bridge, cannot handle the increased traffic; the Lake Fairfax site is close to trails and streams; and the sewage should stay closer to its customers in Great Falls.
A report prepared by an environmental consulting firm said, among other things, it would cost more than $700,000 less to renovate the Colvin Run site rather than build a new plant at a cost of $3.4 million.
Where do you think the septage site should be?
Photo: Proposed site of new facility on Hunter Mill Road
It would be about $700,000 cheaper to renovate an existing Fairfax County septic disposal site rather than build a new one on Hunter Mill Road, says a Septage Site Receiving Study made available by Fairfax County.
Hunter Mill-area residents attended a somewhat contentious community meeting on Feb. 18, where they were skeptical of many things — including the need to relocate the site after 46 years from Colvin Run to Fairfax County Park Authority’s Maintenance Area 6 on Hunter Mill Road, where Reston meets Vienna.
The existing site (one of two in Fairfax County) serves about 21,000 homes with septic tanks — mostly in Great Falls and Oakton — as well as all restaurants in this part of the county, which must dispose of grease into the septage receiving site.
County officials said at the February meeting that the Colvin Run site floods, smells and is serviced by a pipe that is too small. The county looked at six sites, determining that Hunter Mill Road was the only one that could accommodate a facility, even though hauling trucks would have to contend with the one-lane bridge to access the location.
Residents who live on or near Hunter Mill Road were opposed to that plan, citing traffic, noise and the potential for sewage to get into nearby streams as concerns. They urged officials to go back to the drawing board to find a new location.
A couple of items of note in the report, prepared by consultants at Hazen and Sawyer:
The search for the new site came about after a petition was sent to Dranesville Supervisor John Foust. However, the petition only contained 20 signatures from 11 families.
The report was completed in June of 2015, but Hunter Mill-area residents said they did not know anything about the potential project until just before the February meeting.
About 6,000 trips are made to the Colvin Run site annually, the report says. But the consultants also recommend that Fairfax accept sewage from the City of Alexandria and Loudoun County, which would make the new site much busier.
A survey of haulers says that at least 20 percent of waste currently being hauled to Colvin Run may not originate in Fairfax County.
A new site at Hunter Mill will cost $3.4 million to construct. Renovating Colvin Run — which authorities said at the February meeting was not a possibility — would cost $2.6 million.
Read the full feasibility study on Fairfax County’s website.
Photo: Lake Fairfax Maintenance Area 6
Fairfax County Animal Control Officers are investigating two reports of animals that have bitten people in or near Riverbend Park in Great Falls in the last few days.
The first incident occurred at Riverbend Park Wednesday around 8 a.m. A woman was running on a trail from the nature center to the river when she encountered and was bitten by a fox. She self-reported to Reston Hospital Center and is undergoing preventative treatment for potential exposure to rabies, police said. The trail has been temporarily closed.
The second incident occurred at around 9 a.m. the same day, in the 9100 block of Potomac Woods Lane, which is close to Riverbend Park. A woman told police went to check on her chickens and was confronted and bitten by a fox. She too self-reported to Reston Hospital Center for appropriate treatment. The fox is still at large.
There was a third animal bite incident in Fairfax County this week, on the other side of the county. The third incident was at about 11 a.m. on Thursday. A man reported that he was awakened by a raccoon in his home. He fought the raccoon off and was bitten during the struggle. He was eventually able to place his foot on the raccoon’s throat until it stopped breathing. He bagged and transported the animal to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter and then sought medical treatment.
Police confirmed on Friday the raccoon was rabid.
Animal Control says that it is unknown right now whether or not the fox/foxes are rabid, however aggressive tendencies such as those exhibited in these cases are one of the signs of rabies. They would also like to remind residents to keep their dogs on leash when walking in public areas.
Rabies is a disease caused by a virus that can infect both people and animals. People usually get rabies when they are bitten by an animal that is sick with the disease. The best way to protect yourself and your family from rabies: stay away from wild animals and be sure pets are vaccinated against rabies every year.
If bitten or scratched by an animal, wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and seek medical attention right away. In Fairfax County, residents should also immediately report animal bites, as well as sick or injured animals, to Animal Control Services at 703-691-2131 , TTY 703-877-3715.
Photo: Fox/Jans Canon via Flickr
As the battle for open space in Reston heads towards the Virginia Supreme Court, a group of homeowners whose properties overlook Reston National Golf Course may be preparing for a lawsuit of their own.
The attorneys for the owners of RN Golf, the owner of Reston National Golf Course, have filed a notice that they plan to appeal the Fairfax County Circuit Court decision from last year that granted the motion for summary judgment and vacated the Board of Zoning Appeals decision that said the golf course owners could redevelop without getting a comprehensive plan amendment, which could ease the path to redevelopment of the public course.
RN Golf, a subsidiary of Northwestern Mutual Insurance, has until this week to to appeal the latest court order, says Rescue Reston, the citizens advocacy group that is fighting to maintain the golf course as permanent, open space in Reston.
Meanwhile, residents of Golf Course Square appeared at last week’s RA Board of Directors’ meeting to ask the board for its assistance in taking filmed depositions of some of the cluster’s original homeowners.
“Since 2012, our cluster has been discussing legal action we can take separate and apart from the zoning case [heading for] the Virginia Supreme Court,” said Golf Course Square resident Wilfred Hearn. “Our case is broader. The open space [is protected by] covenants and deeds. We have discussed our legal rights with an attorney.”
Hearn said the clusters has located four witnesses who either worked for Reston developer Gulf Reston (in the 1960s and 70s) or bought a house from Gulf Reston.
“The witnesses said the original developer intended the golf course would be permanent and sold houses around the golf course on that basis,” Hearn told the RA Board. “Prospective buyers were told the golf course would always be permanent and bought houses on basis that the golf course would be permanent. These witnesses have direct knowledge of the events between 1964 and ’68 in our cluster, including the building the buying and selling of our homes that surround the golf course.”
Hearn says the cluster leadership wants to petition the circuit court to for an order to take the depositions of the witnesses “to perpetuate their testimony for later use in court.” Read More
Fairfax County Executive Ed Long says the county needs $1 million next year to adequately stock its turf field replacement fund.
About half that money may come from athletes who will be paying more to use the county’s synthetic turf fields, including those at South Lakes High School, Herndon High School and Lake Fairfax Park.
The county has made the move towards replacing grass fields with turf in the last several years because turf is easier to maintain and provides more hours of usage because they can be used in inclement weather.
Meanwhile, one Reston family has become leaders in the fight to raise awareness of potential health risks of playing on turf. Fairfax County has said the data is inconclusive so it has no current plans to replace the turf.
The county’s Turf Field Replacement Fund provides $1.25 million annually to fund the replacement of 63 non-stadium fields with turf throughout the county ($300,000 is funded from athletic fee revenues and $950,000 from the County’s General Fund), the county says.
But the fund currently remains $1 million below the needed funding levels to sustain the project, the county said. Read More
Nearby: New Website — The Town of Herndon has a new website. [Town of Herndon]
Meet The Weather Supercomputer — The new Cray supercomputer — designed, owned and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and located in Reston — processes 3 quadrillion calculations per second to help weather forecast’s become more accurate. [USA Today]
A Boost To Schools’ Bottom Line — The Virginia House budget plan includes $272 million for schools. That could help fill in the gap Fairfax County Schools may have for FY 2017. The school has requested $2.6 billion from the county. The county executive is proposing a $2 billion transfer to the schools. [Richmond.com]
New Space For Reston Base — SOS International LLC will double its footprint in Reston. The defense contractor announced it has signed a lease to expand its headquarters at 1881 Campus Commons Drive to 50,000 square feet from 29,000 square feet.
When Fairfax County Executive Ed Long presented his $3.99 billion Fiscal Year 2017 Proposed Budget to the Board of Supervisors last week, one of the main highlights was a $2.08 billion transfer to the school system — which is about $68 million less than what the Fairfax County Public Schools have requested.
To get there — and to meet other county needs — Long is proposing a 4-cent real estate tax increase (per $100 of value), which would represent an increase of about $303 for the average county homeowner. The current tax rate is $1.09 per $100 of value. Read More
The average Reston assessed home value rose 1.03 percent in the last year, according to 2016 Fairfax County tax assessments.
The average Reston home is valued at $428,378 this year, a rise from $424,021 in 2015.
Here’s a look at some nearby areas: Great Falls, +0.72 percent, Oakton + 1.19 percent, Herndon, +.60 percent, and Vienna, +1.85 percent.
County real estate tax assessments were mailed last week. You can also access yours online.
Fairfax County says about 55 percent of residential property in the county increased in value over the past year due to equalization, with an average increase of 1.64 percent. Nonresidential real estate values (such as commercial) increased 2.87 percent on average due to equalization, the county says.
Assessed value is for tax purposes and is not the same as a listing or sales price if you were to put your house on the market.
Here’s what affects your real estate assessment, according to the county:
- Sales in the neighborhood
- Economic factors – It took an average of 55 days to sell a home in 2015, up from an average of 47 days in 2014
- Improvements to the property (remodeling, additions)
- New construction and rezoning
- Property characteristics (such as size, age and amenities)
You can appeal your assessment. Find out how on Fairfax County’s website.
Meanwhile, the county is considering a 4-cent real estate tax hike for Fiscal Year 2017.
Keep the poop out of the parkland and off of Hunter Mill Road.
That was the sentiment — if not the exact phrasing — of dozens of citizens who attended a community meeting with Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins in Reston on Thursday.
At issue is the county’s proposal to relocate a Septage Receiving Site from Colvin Run in Great Falls a few miles away to the Fairfax County Park Authority’s Maintenance Area 6, located off of Hunter Mill Road on the Reston-Vienna line.
The Colvin Run site, one of two septage receiving sites in Fairfax County, collects waste from septic tanks at homes not hooked into public sewer lines. In this part of the county, most of those homes are in Great Falls and Oakton. Overall, 21,000 Fairfax County homes do not have public sewer service, says a feasibility report on the potential move. Read More
Public officials and private developers are going to have to work together as Reston embarks on rapid transit-oriented development.
That was the takeaway from a legislative forum, The Changing Future of Reston, sponsored by the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce last week.
Speakers included officials from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, which says Reston will need more than $2.6 billion in improvements, as well as representatives from Boston Properties, JBG Companies and Reston Association.
The county is in the process of identifying what projects will need to be done to alleviate traffic, make new streets in an urban grid pattern, and, most importantly, where the money will come from.
The county hopes to have a longterm plan in place later this year, said Janet Nguyen of FCDOT.
But don’t expect lots of immediate change. There likely won’t be a large amount of public funding until at least 2021, said Nguyen. That’s when a new cycle of the county’s six-year transportation project priorities will be formulated.
Money for changes, many of which were outlined in 2014’s Comprehensive Plan Amendment, will eventually come from a variety of sources, including federal funding, state funding, county contributions, developer proffers, and possibly a special service district, county meals tax or a rise in county real estate taxes.
Pete Otteni, senior vide president of development for Boston Properties, said “I think private developers and the public have to be in this together.”
“An interesting way to look at this is the areas around Metro, if they develop under current zoning, they will be 100-percent commercial. But if you talk about changing it into the kind of development that should reduce traffic, where people live and work in same location, you will be taking taking cars off road. We have to look at what will happen if we don’t do anything. We have to do something. It can be can be solved, but we have to be in this together.” Read More
