It’s almost that time of year again: the time when your tap water starts to smell a bit like a swimming pool.
A week from today — on Monday, April 5 — the disinfectant used in Arlington County’s drinking water will be temporarily switched from chloramine to chlorine. The annual spring cleaning will run through May 17, with the goal of improving the condition of the pipes in the county’s water distribution system.
An “emergency utility repair” at Arlington’s sewage treatment plant led to a sewage release into Four Mile Run.
The sewage release happened this morning at the plant on S. Glebe Road. County officials are warning people to avoid the stream between S. Arlington Ridge Road and the Potomac.
(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Arlington, Virginia is hoping to avoid the infrastructure pitfalls in Arlington, Texas — and other parts of the Lone Star State.
At Saturday’s County Board meeting, the Board approved a 24 inch water main project stretching from Lorcom Lane to 25th Street N. in the Donaldson Run neighborhood. The Board authorized $3.1 million for the project, with $2.6 million as the project cost and just over a half-million dollars in contingency funding.
A 94-year-old water main that runs under the residential area north of Clarendon to Courthouse is finally set to be replaced.
On Saturday, the County Board approved a contract for the construction of a new water main along Key Blvd, running from N. Jackson Street to N. Danville Street in Lyon Village. It passed as a consent item, meaning it was deemed non-controversial and was acted upon by a single vote.
(Updated at 2:30 p.m.) A project that could help the Westover area with its flooding problem is on the Arlington County Board agenda this weekend.
The Board on Saturday is slated to consider an agreement with Arlington Public Schools to build a stormwater detention vault under the athletic fields of the Reed Elementary School site in Westover.
Crystal City Parking Lot Staying Put — “Crystal City has been a scalding hot market for new development ever since Amazon.com Inc. moved in — but one well-positioned lot will continue to sit empty for the foreseeable future. Gould Property Co., which owns a small parking lot at 2661 S. Clark St., filed a request with Arlington County last month asking for permission to maintain the property as surface parking through early 2026.” [Washington Business Journal]
Westover Apartment Building Named — “Kathleen Sibert, who led the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (A-SPAN) from 2008 until earlier this year, will remain a permanent part of the organization through a facility named in her honor… Located in Westover, Sibert House is designed to provide permanent-supportive housing and a foundation to help individuals achieve better health, overcome substance abuse and mental illness, obtain job security, and attain their goals.” [InsideNova]
Arlington County is planning to rehabilitate a nearly half-mile long sewage main along Military Road in North Arlington.
The Gulf Run Sanitary Force Main helps transport sewage uphill in some of the far northern reaches of the county. According to a county staff report, the main was built more than 55 years ago and is due for a rehabilitation.
(Updated at 11:25 a.m.) Those who commute over the Chain Bridge will need to find a different route this week, starting tomorrow.
Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services says N. Glebe Road and Chain Bridge Road will be closed just before the entrance to Chain Bridge for much of the week, due to water main repair work.
Seattle Tax Could Advantage Arlington — “It wouldn’t shock us if Amazon started encouraging more of its executives to up and move their teams to HQ2, or a neighboring city in Washington state, now that the Seattle City Council has passed a progressive tax targeting the wealthiest companies in the city.” [Washington Business Journal]
Analysis of County Board Special Election — From @A_Hendel on Twitter: “Takis Karantonis received most of his share of the vote from South Arlington… In fact, almost no precincts north of I-66 cast 50% or more of their votes for Takis.” [Twitter]
Candidates Support Stormwater Investment — “How it gets paid for (and by whom) perhaps is a question for another day, but the three candidates in the July 7 Arlington County Board special election voiced support for increased stormwater-management efforts. ‘We need to be making a generational investment,’ said Susan Cunningham, one of three candidates on the ballot seeking to fill the seat of the late Erik Gutshall.” [InsideNova]
Analysis of N. Arlington House Numbers — “In the ZIP code 22207, serif addresses vastly outnumber sans serif addresses, 7,759 to 2,111. Many blocks feature no sans serif houses at all, or just one or two. But in isolated pockets–individual blocks or even orange and red “hot zones” spread across a couple of streets–sans serif numbers are beginning to break through.” [Slate]
A pair of agreements on Saturday’s County Board docket could strengthen the ties between the water systems operated by Arlington and Fairfax counties.
One agreement would formalize an existing arrangement, in which each water system serves a few hundred of the other county’s customers. Arlington currently serves 369 Fairfax customers along Powhatan Street in the McLean/Falls Church area, while Fairfax serves 313 Arlington customers in the Boulevard Manor and Dominion Hills neighborhoods.
Arlington County is still sending letters threatening to turn off the water service of delinquent utility customers, though it actually stopped the practice last month amid the coronavirus outbreak.
On March 16 the Virginia State Corporation Commission ordered utility providers to stop disconnections of electricity, gas, water and sewer utility services as a result of the public health emergency. The next day Arlington announced that it was suspending water shut offs.
