Middleburg Lifts Mandatory Water Limits, But the Wells Are Still the Story

Middleburg residents can turn the sprinklers back on, within reason. Mandatory water conservation ended Sunday, Nov. 1, after the Town Council voted Oct. 22 to step back to voluntary measures.

In its Oct. 30 notice, the Town said its production wells have become more stable, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has eased the Northern Virginia drought designation from Warning to Watch, and water use naturally falls as the weather cools. The Council followed the advice of its contracted water operator and its Utilities Committee.

The Town still asks customers to limit irrigation and outdoor watering, including car washing, to cut back in the shower and at the sink, and to report leaks promptly.

Three summers running

The limits had been in place since July 24, the day after the Council voted 7-0 to make conservation mandatory. Voluntary measures had started June 12. In 2024 the Council also imposed mandatory limits in mid-July.

Middleburg's water comes entirely from wells. There's no reservoir and no pipeline from elsewhere. "We have a finite number of wells. It has a finite amount of water," Mayor Bridge Littleton told the Council on June 25.

Working on more water

The biggest fix on the table needs money from Washington. In March the Council voted 7-0 to back a $2 million Community Project Funding request to Rep. Suhas Subramanyam for a treatment plant at Well 3 and for replacing break-prone water mains in Ridgeview, with $700,000 of the Town's own money on top. Interim Town Manager Will Moore said the congressman's office reported in August that the request was accepted and $746,868 for Middleburg was written into the Interior and Environment spending bill that cleared the House Appropriations Committee in June. That is about a third of what the Town asked for, and the bill has not passed. "His office advised that this is just one step in many to this funding process," Moore said. There has been no word since.

The Town is also pursuing several other fixes:

• Well 3 came back online this summer and turned out to draw on a different aquifer from the Town's other main wells. It also has PFAS, the long-lasting chemicals from nonstick coatings and firefighting foam. The Town's 2024 water quality report, posted on its website, lists Well 3 at 11 parts per trillion of PFOA and 6.6 of PFOS. The federal limit that takes effect in 2029 is 4 for each. The Town's other wells tested below the limits, and the report notes Well 3 is used for emergencies only. Until a treatment plant is built, Moore said, Well 3 runs only now and then as a backup when Well 4 needs a rest or has a problem, the same way the Town already used it because of its iron and manganese.
• Well 2, south of town on Landmark School Road and out of service for years, got a temporary pump in September so the Town could see what it can produce and what the water is like. "Initial results are encouraging," Moore said, but the well is not feeding the system and there is no timeline or cost yet. The operators will keep running pumping tests of different lengths to measure how much the well gives and how fast it recovers, then report to the Utilities Committee. Only then will the Town decide whether it is worth inspecting the old main back into town and bringing the pump house back to life.
• The Town is also looking at lowering pumps in existing wells and possibly drilling a new well.

A state study of groundwater in western Loudoun and Fauquier is due Dec. 31.

For the Eccentric's view on the wells, see our editorial "Everything Here Runs on the Wells." The October Council report has more on the vote.