Leesburg Magazine ~ Leesburg's Wonderful, Plentiful Water

Thank You, Mayor Rollins (page 1)
Gary Dickens August, 2010		go to Page 2
	The wisdom and foresight of Mayor Kenny Rollins in the '70s has allowed Leesburg to grow rapidly over the past 30 years, while never lacking for a cool drink of water.
If the truth be known, when people start using abbreviations like ppm, gpd or psi, I start getting a little excited. Throw in a few phrases like boundary-layer theory or flocculation rate and you have my undivided attention.. Yes, I am a geek; with a bit of good natured, mad-scientist thrown in for fair measure. During my REHAU years they actually paid me to work in factories and to visit those of our customers. Good times. So, when I started thinking about writing an article on Leesburg's very tasty water, I knew there was a good chance I could get an inside look at a factory, or perhaps more precisely, the Kenneth B. Rollins Water Treatment plant. Nothing like a plant tour to start the week out right.
	Leesburg's water comes from the Potomac River, just downstream from Red Rock Park, at this intake station. Large pumps pull from the river and send it up the hill to the processing plant.
Leesburg's municipal water works is rooted in a 19th century lottery of all things. Mary Fishback tells us (Loudoun Times-Mirror Oct 17, 1990) that a $10,000 lottery was organized after the 1836 visit of one Professor McGruffy to Leesburg, $5000 of which went to the Leesburg Academy and the other $5000 to establishling a system of water works. To kick the article off, I met with Leesburg's Utility Director Randy Shoemaker and Utilities Maintenance Manager, John Creamer. They described an early system of bored out logs reinforced with metal rings which brought water downtown from springs near the intersection of Dry Mill Road and Loudoun Street. Today you can see one of those early sections of log pipe in the lobby of the Utilities Building.

These large 24" ID pipes receive raw water into the processing plant from the riverside pumping station. From here a myriad of tests, chemical additions, filtration and more tests ensue. On the July day I visited, the plant was running at slightly less than half capacity, at just over 7 million gallons.
By the 1970's the town had come a long way from those original log pipes carrying spring water. The system was then carrying water from about 10 wells, but some of them were becoming contaminated and had to be shut down. Mayor Rollins saw growth on the horizon and felt it was time to get away from a well-based water system, and looked to the Potomac River as the town's new water source. The original Potomac River plant was put into service in April of 1982, with a capacity of 2.5 million gallons per day (MGD) and at a cost of $7,000,000. Its capacity has been systematically increased to stay ahead of Leesburg's growth. From 2.5 MGD to 5 MGD in 1990, then from 5 MGD to 10 MGD in 2000. The last upgrade was to 15 MGD in 2008. The hoped for plant tour was soon scheduled. go on to page 2
		Joe Phillips, Assistant Plant Manager, watches over the central water system control computers. An operator can not only monitor every operation ongoing in the plant, but check Leesburg's distribution system also (water tower levels etc). Such modernization, combined with cross-training, helps keep staff costs at a minimum.