Fairfax County Water Authority

8570 Executive Park Avenue

Fairfax, Virginia 22031

January 6, 2020

Mr. Gary Graham

Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

1111 East Main Street, Suite 14000

P.O. Box 1105

Richmond, VA 23218

Re:  NOIRA Regulation 9 VAC 25-720

Dear Mr. Graham:

The Fairfax County Water Authority (“Fairfax Water”) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Notice of Intended Regulatory Action (NOIRA) amendments to the Water Quality Management Planning Regulations (WQMP) - 9 VAC 25-720.

As you are aware, Fairfax Water provided comments (attached) on Virginia’s Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) development on May 28, 2019. Those comments focused on our endorsement of maintaining current WIP implementation requirements for Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA) in the absence of rigorous scientific study evidencing water quality improvements in the Occoquan Reservoir system.

One of the considerations addressed in the NOIRA is that “facilities with special circumstances could be assigned floating wasteload allocations or possibly no floating wasteload allocation”.   The imposition of a “floating wasteload allocation” on the UOSA implementation plan would represent a significant change to the current situation. Therefore, we reiterate our previous position that any significant change to UOSA’s current implementation requirements under the NOIRA (which may impact total nitrogen limitations) requires rigorous scientific study to determine the resulting water quality impact. In the absence of such study, Fairfax Water strongly endorses maintaining the current WQMP implementation requirements for UOSA.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please contact Greg Prelewicz, Manager, Planning, at (703) 289-6318 or gprelewicz@fairfaxwater.org if you have questions or require additional information.

                                                                         Sincerely,

cc:        Mr. Charles Boepple, Executive Director, UOSA

Dr. Adil Godrej, Co-Director, OWML

Mr. Jeremy Hull, Field Director, VDH

Deputy General Manager

            Director, Planning and Engineering

            Director, Production

            Manager, Planning