Vienna Sues Board of Supervisors Over Water Issue

The Town of Vienna has joined two other Fairfax County municipalities in suing the Board of Supervisors over a power grab on water rates.

The town's suit alleges that a Fairfax County ordinance, passed in December, violates a Virginia law that governs water rates. The ordinance gave the county the power to approve or reject the rates municipalities charge to customers outside their corporate limits.

The Vienna suit cites state law that says municipalities, who have operated water services outside of its boundaries before July 1, 1976, can set its fees without consent of the overarching jurisdiction.

"Despite the Town's established record of providing quality water service to residents of the Town and portions of unincorporated Fairfax County adjoining the Town at fair and reasonable rates, the Board, which provides no water service to the residents of the unincorporated Fairfax County, recently attempted to override and modify the Town's contracts with the Town's customers within Fairfax County," the suit says.

Neither the town nor Fairfax County would comment on the litigation, which was filed March 9 in Fairfax County Circuit Court.

Earlier this year, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church filed similar legal actions against the supervisors, saying the county did not have the authority to take the responsibility of overseeing a water system away from a separate jurisdiction. 

Vienna has operated its water system since 1947, before the Fairfax Water utility was created, Mayor Jane Seeman told the supervisors in December. Today, it has 9,000 customer accounts, with nearly 40 percent of them outside the town's municipal borders. Unlike Falls Church or Fairfax City, Vienna has no independent water supply; the town buys its water from the Falls Church at a rate higher than the one the county pays for its own water. 

Some of the out-of-town properties Vienna services have been connected to the town's system at the request of Fairfax County and the Fairfax County Water Authority because neither could provide Water service to these customers, the suit says; neither Fairfax County nor Fairfax Water has ever formally requested to provide service to any of the town's customers, and, Vienna customers aren't eligible to become Fairfax Water customers because they haven't paid a "capacity buy in" fee.

The ordinance also violates the due process of law, the suit says, because it attempts to regulate some water services but not those of Fairfax Water.

The Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission also reported to the supervisors in 2010 that Vienna's water rates are below the state average, according to the suit.

The suit also takes issue with how the ordinance amendments were adopted. Among its complaints:

• The board's action in adopting the ordinance "was not fully or properly advertised."
• The ordinance does not reflect or include all provisions of the original motion by Sup. Linda Smyth nor the changes proposed by Sup. Jeff McKay, including what they called the "Tysons Grandfather." The "Tysons Grandfather," which would exempt development within a certain distance of the future Tysons Urban center from the new rate-setting process, is not included in the adopted ordinance. The grandfather itself is also too vague, the suit says.
• The county released its rate, fee and charge review process on Feb. 17, which interferes with

A trial date was not available at press time.

Vienna Patch will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.