West End Sewer System: Growth to Pay for Growth

The sanitary sewer system was high on the agenda at Monday night’s meeting of the Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association, as a handful of residents in late 2012 and early 2013 experienced basement back-ups from an overloaded sanitary sewer system.

City officials reassured residents that they are working to try to prevent backflow into homes in the future through maintenance and improvements while taking into account planned growth in the West End.

In the West End—unlike in the Old Town area—the sanitary sewer system is separate from the storm water sewer system. However, storm water and ground water can still affect the sanitary sewer system through loose manhole covers, cracks in pipes and groundwater seepage. That may have been part of the cause of some sewer backups into homes on Christmas Eve in the Holmes Run area, said Erin Bervis-Carver, a project manager and engineer with the City of Alexandria.

Growth to Pay for Growth

City officials indicated that much of the growth in Alexandria in the next several decades will happen in the West End. That growth includes proposals in the Beauregard area (see more on the Beauregard Small Area Plan here), Landmark and elsewhere.

Anything growth-related with regards to sewer system usage should be paid for by growth, Bevis-Carver said.

For example, the city is considering increasing the fees charged to developers who want to connect new projects to the sanitary sewer system. Under consideration is a proposal to increase fees that would hit multi-family developments like those planned for Beauregard area.

According to initial, preliminary findings from a joint study between Alexandria, Fairfax County and Alexandria Renew Enterprises, the Holmes Run Trunk Sewer is the main “interceptor” for the West End, and it’s already toward the upper end of its capacity, Bevis-Carver said. (Note: A trunk sewer is where home and neighborhood pipes flow and continue to the treatment facility on Eisenhower Avenue.)

The final study, which already has accounted for future Beauregard, Landmark and Fairfax County growth, will be available later this year.

In addition to being available online, residents can read the Sanitary Sewer Master Plan documents at Beatley Library free of charge.

The Sanitary Sewer Master Plan is available online here from the City of Alexandria.