Fairfax County Water Authority

The Fairfax County Water Authority (Fairfax Water, FCWA) is a local water utility that manages water for the majority of Fairfax County and portions of Loudoun County, Prince William County and the City of Alexandria.

Fairfax Water operates Corbalis Treatment Plant and Griffith Treatment Plant water treatment plants with a combined capacity of 345 million gallons per day. Fairfax Water produces, on average, 160 million gallons of water per day. Over 233,000 mostly residential accounts in Fairfax County comprise about 55 percent of total water sales, Approximately 45 percent of total water sales is wholesaled to Loudoun and Prince William Counties and the City of Alexandria.

Mission: To establish, operate and maintain a comprehensive and integrated water system to be accomplished through the acquisition of existing systems, the construction of new facilities and, where beneficial, extended beyond Fairfax County.

Vision: Fairfax Water is the respected industry leader; we earn our customers’ trust by providing water of exceptional quality and reliability. We are a team who takes pride in delivering one of life’s essential services by optimizing efficiency and effectiveness.:

Oversight and Management
The authority is managed by a board of 10 members, who are appointed by the Fairfax Board of Supervisors. Each member serves a three-year term and non-voting representatives are appointed by wholesale customers. The policies set by the board are carried out by the executive staff, headed by general manager Charles M. Murray.

History
The establishment of the Fairfax County Water Authority has its roots in the 1955 failure of a $30 million bond referendum, the proceeds of which were to establish a county-wide water system. Following the failure of the bond referendum, the Board of Supervisors canceled their plans to buy the Annandale Water Company, which was seen as the first step towards unifying the county's 18 different water companies.

The Fairfax County Water Authority was created by a resolution of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on September 4, 1957 and was chartered by the Virginia State Corporate Commission as a non-profit, public utility on September 26. The primary reason for the authority's creation was that, as an independent authority, the FCWA could issue bonds without first needing voter approval, but would still nominally be controlled by the Board of Supervisors, who would appoint the members of the authority's board of directors.

On September 29, 1958, FCWA Chairman Samuel E. Neel announced that an agreement to purchase the Annandale Water Company for $1,225,000 had been reached. The price was financed with a $3 million issue of revenue bonds by FCWA, which took control of Annandale Water on January 22, 1959.