Fauquier treatment plant behind schedule on upgrade, fined by state

Date published: 3/20/2007

By RUSTY DENNEN

A wastewater treatment plant upgrade at Fauquier County's Vint Hill Farms Station is behind schedule and facing a fine.

The State Water Control Board has proposed a consent order to bring the plant into compliance by August. A consent order is a voluntary agreement negotiated between the parties.

According to the agreement, signed by L. Paul Blackmer Jr., chairman of the Fauquier County Water and Sewer Sanitation Authority, the agency will pay a $6,300 fine.

Problems at the sewage treatment plant go back for more than a year. The plant discharges into South Run, a tributary of the Potomac River.

Vint Hill is a former Army communications post that is now a mixed-use business park and residential development.

In March 2006, the authority agreed to upgrade the treatment system by Feb. 1 of this year, and to close the old system by May 1.

The authority then informed the state that the contractor doing the upgrade would be unable to meet the deadline.

The water board also noted that the plant exceeded permit limits for phosphorus, ammonia and biological oxygen demand in March of last year. Warning letters were issued for those violations. Biological oxygen demand measures the concentration of biodegradable organic matter present in a sample of water.

The authority said that those incidents stemmed from a faulty filter that has since been repaired.

The order calls for the authority to:

Complete the upgrade by Aug. 1

Begin meeting ammonia permit limits within 90 days of the completion of construction.

Close the old system by Nov. 1.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will accept public comment on the proposed order until April 4.

A copy of the order is available for inspection at DEQ's Northern Virginia office, 13901 Crown Court in Woodbridge, and online on the DEQ Web site at deq.state.va.us/enforcement/notices.html.

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com

Date published: 3/20/2007