For the low price of $5,000, the Town of Clifton can join a regional task force to determine the health of its water supply.
Normand Goulet, a senior environmental planner and IT manager for the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, explained to the Town Council that legislation passed by the Department of Environmental Quality a few years ago mandated that all water supplies in Virginia be examined and monitored to better prepare the state for a drought.
The legislation, passed in response to a water shortage from a drought in the late 1990s, requires all water supplies to provide a plan for handling a crisis situation, like another drought, Goulet said.
"It will take us until 2011 to submit the plan, there's a lot of work involved," he said. "The choice you have is to try to do it all on your own, or to join this regional group, which includes Prince William County, the City of Fairfax, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and other municipalities. If you decide to join, we'll do most of the work for you."
Goulet said it would make more sense for Clifton to join the regional group because the main water supply for the town are individual wells. The legislation is geared, and written, for those areas with larger standing water supplies, like areas with reservoirs, he said.
CURRENTLY, VIRGINIA does not have an overall water supply plan should there be another drought, Goulet said. By looking at water supplies now, it will be easier to create a plan "when everyone's heads are cool," he said.
"If there's an existing problem in our own water supply, we'll have the benefit of finding out the information and how we can apply it to our own wells," said Susan Yantis, a member of the Clifton Planning Commission.
When the Comprehensive Plans are brought together, which will include a 30-year plan for growth and development in each region, it will be updated every 10 years to make sure all components are still in place, Goulet said.
Members of the Town Council agreed to consider joining the regional group, pending further information on the regional group and what the town would be required to complete.
Other items discussed at the Tuesday, Nov. 8 regular meeting included:
* Installation of a new HVAC monitoring system in the Town Meeting Hall has been completed and will be controlled off-site by Coastal Building Automation, the company that installed it. Councilmember Lane Johnston said a representative of the company will most likely address the Council during the December or January meeting to see how much they're saving on utility costs.
* A contract for $3,200 was awarded to Freedom Tree Service, pending their agreement to complete clean-up work in Buckley Park to FEMA specifications. FEMA gave the Town of Clifton $3,200 to remove trees that were knocked down in the park during the storm in late June and a six-month timeline for completion. The work will include cutting the trees into smaller, more manageable pieces, moving them to the bank of the creek in Buckley Park, and some tree stump grinding.
* A public hearing on the Town's possible franchise agreement with Verizon to provide digital cable service was scheduled for the next meeting, on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m.