Fairfax Water

Fairfax Water

Fairfax County Water Authority was founded in 1957 as a public non-profit corporation and is a component unit of Fairfax County government. Chairman Philip W. Allin has served on the board since 1992. The authority supplies drinking water to approximately two million people in Northern Virginia, including Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties and the City of Alexandria. The authority's assets are entirely physical: two major water treatment plants, the Occoquan Reservoir and Dam, and thousands of acres of land and rights of way across Northern Virginia. The Corbalis plant in Herndon and the Griffith plant in Lorton form the production backbone. In an operation of this scale, deployment is tied to multi-decade capital improvement cycles. A recent example is the partnership with Vulcan Materials to construct a new reservoir in Lorton, reflecting the utility's long-term approach to water security in a growing region. Fairfax Water's operational footprint is managed from its Fairfax County headquarters. The Charles M. Murray Maintenance Facility supports field operations. The authority partners with the Upper Occoquan Service Authority for wholesale water and wastewater services. It is an active member of the American Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, networks that shape technical and regulatory standards for large U.S. water providers. The authority's board structure and public non-profit charter set it apart from investor-owned utilities. Its mandate is defined by rate-payer stewardship rather than equity returns, making it a patient capital allocator in the water sector. Capital decisions are governed by long-range resource planning and raw water supply agreements rather than quarterly earnings targets, a structural difference from private infrastructure funds investing in the same asset class.