Water and Sewer Infrastructure

Program Summary

The Capital Improvement Programs for the water distribution and sanitary sewer collection systems are guided by Master Plans adopted by the Board in 2014 for the Water Distribution system and Sanitary Sewer adopted in 2002 (currently being updated). Programs for both systems are bifurcated into Expansion and Capital Sustainment (formerly called Non-Expansion) programs. The Expansion programs provide additional system capacity to accommodate anticipated growth through the year 2040 and are included in the Water Distribution and Sanitary Sewer Improvements Programs, while the Capital Sustainment programs are focused on asset maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement and are included in the WS Maintenance Capital Program.

The Master Plans for both systems identify large infrastructure projects to expand capacity, improve redundancy, and replace or rehabilitate existing infrastructure, as well as identify key programs based upon core asset management principles. Many of the large infrastructure projects in the Master Plans have already been completed, others are well-underway, and others are programmed in this CIP. Likewise, most of the asset-based infrastructure programs are recurring programs which rehabilitate or replace a consistent portion of our infrastructure on a regular cycle to ensure that we are maintaining a system which is efficient, reliable, and avoids abrupt funding needs.

Funding is included in this CIP for source water reliability and assurance projects at the Washington Aqueduct, as well as significant funding for source reliability and redundancy at the Washington Aqueduct and/or with neighboring utilities. The County is conducting a study which will guide strategic infrastructure investments to assure source water redundancy and reliability.

The WPCP Capital Sustainment Program (formerly called WPCP Non-Expansion) focuses on projects that rehabilitate, replace, and/or upgrade existing WPCP infrastructure, including process control/ automation, to ensure that the facility can safely protect the public health and the environment by reliably maintaining continuity of service and simultaneously meeting the permit requirements. Also included in the Capital Sustainment program are annual repairs and replacement of current equipment and infrastructure at the plant and 15 pumping and metering stations. WPCP Capital Sustainment also funds Arlington's pro-rata share of improvements at DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant and the associated conveyance infrastructure.

The WPCP Capital Sustainment Program provides for significant investment in the Solids Handling processes at the Plant. The 2001 WPCP Master Plan identified the need to address Solids Handling, but prioritized the liquid processes and capacity issues, and thus the Solids Planning was deferred. A subsequent Solids Master Plan was adopted by the County Board in conjunction with the FY 2019 - FY 2028 CIP. The Solids Master Plan identified core criteria spanning operational, economic, environmental, regulatory, and social considerations. It evaluated the state of current technology to identify process(es) which best meets the needs of the community. This suite of projects to replace and upgrade the solids handling processes and equipment, collectively known as Arlington Re-Gen, has been broken into three phases, described below:

  • Re-Gen, Phase I - Immediate project needs to replace solids handling critical equipment that are failing and costly and labor-intensive tomaintain. Several of these projects are underway or completed.
  • Re-Gen, Phase II - Projects that need to be completed in advance of Phase III. This may involve additional equipment replacement ordemolition of underutilized facilities in preparation for the Phase III construction.
  • Phase III - Implementation of technology to provide long-term sustainability of the WPCP's solids handling processes, deriving benefitsof addressing any future regulatory changes while reducing the impacts on the surrounding community and increasing energy efficiency.

With the completion of the 2001 WPCP Master Plan (MP01) program, which increased treatment system capacity from 30 Million Gallons per Day (MGD) to 40 MGD, no treatment system capacity expansion projects are included in this CIP.

Full Program Summary(PDF, 968KB)