Evening star., 1948-11-28
Land Is Bought
For New Fairfax
Wafer Supply
Old Occoquon Firm
Rights Purchased
For $500, 900
By Mary Lou Werner

Development of Fairfax County
already one of the fastest growing
areas in the Nation, will be spurred
by establishment OF water facilities
in the Occoquan area, Keith Price.
chairman of the Fairfax Planning
Commission predicted last night.
The Alexandria Water Co., which
serves adjacent areas of Fairfax
County, yesterday announced ac-
QUESTION for $50O,O00 of the dam
and water rights of the Occoquan
Co., and the Occoquan Hydroelectric
Power Co., for use as a new water
source for the Northern Virginia
area. The facilities include a dam
and lake on OccoQuan Creek.
Large areas in the county which
have laid dormant now will be
opened to development with the
availability of water system" Mi.
Price said.
"A water system also will make
possible establishment of sewage
systems which are another aid to
real estate development" the plan
ming commission chairman added.
Wells Provide Water.
Much of the area which could be
served by the new water facilities
now depend on wells for a water
supply, Mr.. Keith declared.
The Virginia Water c.. a sub
sidiary of the Alexandria Water Co.,
has been formed to handle distribu-
ton of water from the new reservoir
to Fairfax County users.
Company officials are planning to
meet with county and town officials
of Fairfax to determine the water
service requirements of the county.
The newly acquired dam, known
as Ryan's Dam, is located on Occo-
guam Greek about six miles above
the village of Occoquan. The COM
munity is across the creek from
Lorton, site of District penal IN
stitutions. The dam was built by
the now-defunct Occoquan COM
panies as source of electricity, but
never served more than 200 homes.
The water backed up by the dam
is known as Lake Delafield.
Expansion Provided For.
The present reservoir for the
Alexandria area on Holmes Run
near Baileys Cross Roads, has a
daily yield of 100000 to $4,000, 900
gallons. The new reservoir will yield
about 20,000,OO0 gallons daily and
could be developed to supply many
times this amount if justified by the
countys growth. The company plans
to use both reservoirs.
Present customers of the Alexan-
dria Water Co. require about $780,
600 gallons of water daily. Most of
these customers, however, are in
Alexandria and adjacent areas of
Fairfax County.
Some contracts have been signed
for the construction of supply. puri-
flcation, pumping and transmission
facilities, NECESSARY to introduce the
new supply into the, companyis
Alexandria main.
1t is planned to begin installation
of transmission mains next March,
and engineers believe the project
will be completed by the end OF
1949. Company officials said they
would announce at later date the
exact location of a new plant and
pumping stations. They anticipate
the project will ultimately cost
well over" $6000,000.
In announcing the new project
the water company said Occoquan
Greek is the sole remaining stream
of any considerable size suitable for
development as water supply in
the Washington Metropolitan Area
other than the Potomac River which
is not potable downstream from
Washington.
The quality of the water in the
stream, company spokesman de-
clared, is excellent and is chemically
a soft water.