A 75-year-old water tank serving the Dominion Hills and Boulevard Manor neighborhoods is on track for a replacement — eventually.
The 200,000-gallon Willston tank is “inadequate to meet the needs of the current service area,” Fairfax Water General Manager Jamie Bain Hedges said at a June 2 meeting between the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Fairfax Water Board.
The current tank is “beyond rehabilitation,” Hedges said, reaffirming plans announced in 2025 to construct a new holding tank — one with five times the capacity — nearby.
Fairfax Water last November submitted an application to replace the existing tank, located on the grounds of Seven Corners Apartments at 6122 Willston Drive just on the Fairfax side of the Arlington-Fairfax boundary line.
The proposed new tank will be moved to the other side of the apartment complex, just west of Upton Hill Park. While being larger, the new tank will be “less prominent and less visible” to the surrounding community, Fairfax Water said in filing its request with the Fairfax County government.
The new tank is planned to consist of a steel bowl with a diameter of 74 feet on top of a concrete pedestal that’s approximately 40 feet in diameter and 70 feet in height, Fairfax Water officials said last year.
It will be located on higher ground, which is expected to improve service parameters for customers in the Willston Pressure Zone supplied by the tank.
The Willston tank provides water service to about 2% of Arlington households, including both single-family homes and apartments.
Outside of Arlington, the tank’s service zone also includes portions of Falls Church in addition to Seven Corners and surrounding areas of Fairfax County. It was incorporated into the Fairfax Water network when that municipal agency purchased the Falls Church city government’s water system in 2014.
Because it will be located on the Fairfax side of the border, approval of the project rests with the Fairfax County Planning Commission through what in Fairfax is known as a “2232 review” required of public facilities.
At the June 2 meeting, Hedges did not give a timetable for the project to move through the regulatory process. The existing tank will remain in service until the replacement comes online.
