The Loudoun County Sanitation Authority (LCSA) provides public water and sewer service for Loudoun County residents who live outside incorporated towns. The authority services more than 160,000 people in eastern Loudoun.
The incorporated towns in Loudoun County are responsible for providing water and sewer service to residents of the towns. Residents with questions or problems regarding these services should contact their town government.
Starting or Terminating Service
To start or terminate water and wastewater service, call 703-771-1092. When terminating service, be sure to have a forwarding address for the final bill. If moving to a new home within the service area, scheduling the disconnection of water service at the old address and connection for water service at the new address can be done in the same phone call.
LCSA customers are billed on a quarterly basis or every three months.
Water and Wastewater Service Charges
A schedule of water and sewer charges is listed on the back of the bill. LCSA assess a peak use charge on customers who place an extra high demand on the system during the summer. The peak use charge is designed to pay the costs of water facilities required to meet this high demand and also to promote wise water use.
The Authority recognizes that a significant amount of water used in the summer is used for irrigation and other outdoor purposes and that water does not enter the sewer system. Therefore, single-family and townhouse residences are charged for sewer based on actual water consumption or winter consumption plus 3,000 gallons, whichever is less.
Basic Charge is a charge designed to recover the fixed costs of having the system in place and ready to serve as well as the costs of administering the account for a single-family or townhouse dwelling: Water $18.93; Sewer $16.62
Charges for non-residential customers are based on meter size. Call customer service, 703-771-1092, for the rates of non-residential customers.
Winter Quarter Usage is the consumption during the period ending in February, March, or April each year.
Uniform Water Rate for Metered Service for new customers is $1.76. Charge per 1,000 gallons of metered water consumption for customers who have not established a winter quarter usage. These customers are not assessed the additional peak use charge.
Established customers are charged $1.64. Charge per 1,000 gallons of metered water consumption for customers who have established a winter quarter usage.
Peak use charge is $2.46. In addition to the uniform rate, a charge per 1,000 gallons for consumption billed during June through November in excess of the greater of 6,000 gallons above the preceding winter quarter usage or 1.3 times the preceding winter quarter usage.
An account charge of $25 is paid by each applicant for new service. The purpose of this charge is to defray the cost incurred in clerical and bookkeeping activities, the turning on of service and/or meter reading required for each new account or transfer of account.
A late payment charge of 10 percent is added if payment is not received by the delinquent date.
Water Supply/Distribution
LCSA provides water through a network of transmission mains and distribution lines throughout eastern Loudoun County. Two-thirds of the water LCSA supplies comes from the Potomac River, through a purchase agreement with the Fairfax County Water Authority. The other 1/3 comes from Goose Creek in Ashburn through a purchase agreement with the City of Fairfax. Beaverdam Creek Reservoir holds 1.3 billion gallons of water and is routinely tapped to maintain flows in Goose Creek. An additional 11.8 million gallons of water is stored in 5 water tanks Ñ two in Broadlands, one in Sterling, and two in Brambleton.
The average daily demand for water from LCSA customers is 18 million gallons.
Wastewater Collection and Treatment
Most of the wastewater produced flows through miles of pipe by way of gravity and pumps to the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Facility. This facility is operated by the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority and is located in Southwest Washington. Once treated, this water is then discharged to the Potomac River.
There are some small communities and a few large facilities in the LCSA service area that cannot rely on gravity flow to Washington. The wastewater from more than half-a-dozen areas are treated at a small plant owned and operated by LCSA and discharged into small creeks and tributaries that eventually lead to the Potomac.