Then, when we got into October, the level of the Occoquan was down about 2 billion gallons, when if the purchases had been made through the previous 2 months, it could have still been up above 3 billion gallons. Now, there was a billion and a half gallons in the Manassas, which, Mr. Herrity said we didn't want to buy because it might evaporate and had that been purchased, the amount of water would have been over 4 billion gallons in the Occoquan even at the end of October before the rains came. Mr. HERRITY. The Manassas storage was always part of our calculations in terms of water available. We didn't just calculate the level of the Occoquan. We calculated making our decisions on all the water supplies that were available, including Lake Manassas. Mr. HARRIS. What my question is, did the board ask the water authority in August whether or not they were maximizing the use of the Potomac water Mr. HERRITY. Mr. Harris, the board was in recess in August. Mr. HARRIS. Let me finish the question. Were they asked whether they were maximizing the Potomac water, and you and I both agree the Potomac water is important to Fairfax? Whether it comes from a direct tap or Dalecarlia doesn't make any difference. Mr. HERRITY. Well, the answer is the board was in recess in August. Mr. HARRIS. On August 5 you issued your proclamation. Mr. HERRITY. The Board was in recess in August. The county executive issued his proclamation. What I'm trying to tell you is that in April, the board of supervisors passed an ordinance giving the county executive discretionary authority, after conferring with the other local jurisdictions, to take this action. The board, when he took that action, was in recess. Mr. HARRIS. But at no time during July or September did you ask the water authority if they were making maximum purchases from Falls Church? Mr. HERRITY. This problem first came to our attention, as I say, at the end of July, and the authority presumably-and I think you should get testimony from the authority with respect to their purchases from Falls Church and the reasons why they did or didn't make the maximum purchases. Mr. HARRIS. What I'm trying to figure out is if there was policy guidance on the authority to tell them back in June and July to maximize their purchases from Falls Church. Mr. HERRITY. As you well know, the board doesn't issue policy guidances to the authority, because the authority is a separate entity set up under the State law and they have their own members and direct the policy in that way. I think Mr. Corbalis and the chairman of the authority could answer the questions with respect to their purchases of water from Falls Church. Mr. HARRIS. Yes; but only the board of supervisors can impose water restrictions, Mr. Herrity, and what I'm trying to determine is did the board at least tell the water authority to purchase as much from Falls Church as possible in order to minimize the crisis as far as the Occoquan is concerned? Mr. HERRITY. I think the board had a policy direction to the authority to determine. As I say, we were not in session in August. So, at that time we did not make any policy direction because the board was not in session. Mr. HARRIS. How about September; did you tell them in September? Mr. HERRITY. In September, as I say, I talked to Mr. Corbalis and indicated that he should maximize his purchase of water from Falls Church. That's exactly right, to make sure that that was being done. Mr. HARRIS. It wasn't until September what, that you told Mr. Corbalis? Mr. HERRITY. I don't recall the exact date, but there was an attempt to maximize, at least on my part anyway, to talk to Mr. Corbalis and the authority about maximizing the purchases of water from Falls Church in September when the board reconvened, but the board was in recess during the whole month of August. Mr. HARRIS. Well, had they done that, as you can see on this chart, in June instead of September, and which, as far as I can tell, is no more than turning a valve. Mr. HERRITY. Well, of course, in June the problem was not apparent. As I said, we can sit here as "Monday morning quarterbacks" and and try to figure out what should have been done and what shouldn't have been done in June, but the fact is, the problem did not really come into focus until the end of July and the first part of August, and that's when we took action. Mr. HARRIS. Mandatory restrictions were imposed on the public on September 17. The authority did not take steps to maximize the amount of water it could purchase via Arlington and Falls Church until September 20, and it just seems strange to me that mandatory restrictions were placed on people before the maximum amount of water from Falls Church was taken. Mr. HERRITY. I think, as I say, you'll have to ask the authority the reasons why they did not maximize purchases at that time, if they indeed could have done to the pumping capacity at that time, or whether this pump in Falls Church was in, because that was a relatively new component. Mr. HARRIS. The important point is this: As we come into this next summer, instead of waiting Mr. HERRITY. I think you should have invited the authority up here to question them. Mr. HARRIS. What I'm trying to ask you, Mr. Herrity, if I may finish my question, as we come into this summer, can we urge the board, and the authority too-but the board has the policy guidance to maximize purchases from Falls Church starting in the summer, so that the Occoquan is not drawn down in the water shortage months? Mr. HERRITY. Well, I think as we indicated, we're going to make every effort to determine the Occoquan supply based on a computer model done of the Occoquan. We'll have better understanding of the water table, and you were talking about the rainfall yourself between April and May, and we were not totally aware of the impact of the prior years on the Mr. HARRIS. I understand that, and last year is not as important as what we're going to do this summer. What I want to determine is this summer, can we get policy guidance to the water authority not to take water out of the Occoquan when they can take water from Dalecarlia to the extent that they not draw down the Occoquan ahead of time? Can we get that done? Mr. HERRITY. Policy guidance of the Board is going to be to direct the water authority to see that we don't have a problem like we had before, and to monitor the thing, and if there is a problem, certainly, to maximize all water facilities that are available, but I don't think we're going to do that until we understand exactly what the facts are and the circumstances are in the particular case. I'm not going to tell you we're going to start purchasing water from Dalecarlia in June. Mr. HARRIS. We hope this information is beneficial to you, and certainly would urge you to consider it for this coming year, because, as this chart demonstrates, there was 1 billion gallons of water from the Potomac that Fairfax, Alexandria, and Prince William could have had and they just didn't. Mr. HERRITY. Mr. Harris, as I said Mr. HARRIS. I don't think it's any more expensive. Mr. HERRITY [continuing]. I don't agree with your statement. First of all, the situation with respect to the problems in the Occoquan was not readily apparent in June. I think you're trying to play some sort of game, a numbers game here. It was not apparent at that point. It was not apparent until the first part of August. With respect to purchases from Falls Church, I think you ought to talk to the authority that made the determination as to why the levels of purchase were such at that time that they made the purchase. They were the ones involved in making that determination, and I think you ought to bring them here to testify to that effect, and I'm surprised that you didn't invite them. Mr. HARRIS. Well, we certainly want the water authority hereMr. HERRITY. Well, I think you ought to invite them. Mr. HARRIS [continuing]. And we want you here, Mr. Herrity. We're urging you to prepare for next summer. Here are the purchases from Falls Church on the line [indicating], starting here in the middle of May and going through September, and what was impressive to the staff that brought this to my attention was the fact that the purchases from Falls Church actually declined through the middle of July and did not start increasing until the end of July and did not get up to its maximum, and this maximum had existed right across here [indicating], until September 20, and this meant a loss of 986 million gallons to the Fairfax Water Authority. You can call this "playing with numbers" if you want, but this is the information that the staff developed for me, and if, in fact, we can add that 1 billion gallons to a water supply next summer, I think we ought to do it. Mr. HERRITY. Well, what I call as "playing with numbers" and "Monday morning quarterbacking," I think is a combination of the two. As I say, the problems in the Occoquan, and you know you represent the jurisdictions of Falls Church, of Fairfax, Alexandria, and Prince William County, and it's certain your advice during this period of time would have been certainly welcome, but I don't think we heard from you with respect to that and you were as aware of these problems as anybody else was. The fact of the matter is that we did not become aware of the serious problems with respect to the water table and the water supply in the Occoquan until late July and early August, and you're starting in June or earlier and projecting amounts that we should have increased purchases from Falls Church. Mr. HARRIS. Well, whether you should have started in June, or whether you start in August, Mr. Herrity, at least I can't understand why they waited until September 20 to start taking the maximum amount, but what's more important is can we get assurance here as far as next summer is concerned that they'll start purchasing at the maximum earlier in the summer instead of waiting a month and a half after the Board orders the public to go on water curtailment. Mr. HERRITY. We intend to monitor this situation very carefully and to make sure the public interest is protected through the summer. There's absolutely no question about that. As I indicated to you, you ought to have asked the Water Authority to come and testify, because they're the ones who were doing the purchasing. Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Fauņtroy. NEED FOR PLANNING Mr. FAUNTROY. Mr. Herrity, I'd simply like to emphasize the comments I made in my opening remarks that the members of the committee, the Members of the Congress, and certainly the residents of the District of Columbia are concerned not only about water supply and quality, but about the management of demand and consumption, and Mr. Harris' questions leads to the question of whether or not in the future we're going to have management planning that will not require our entering a low flow situation when there are a billion gallons of water that are not being utilized available to one of the jurisdictions. So, I would hope that you would not be annoyed by our concern that we benefit and profit from the experiences of the past, and that that benefit and profit be evidenced in our planning for the next low flow season. Mr. HERRITY. Mr. Fauntroy, I believe I indicated in my statement that we are going to be very carefully monitoring both the supply in the Occoquan and the water table. The water table in the watershed is really the critical issue and its replenishment, and this was the factor that was basically not really understood in the July-August time frame that we were talking about. It was figured that if we had a rainfall, you'd fill the Occoquan, but rain came and it was all absorbed filling up the water table, and that was the basic problem. We understand these factors much better now than we did then, and certainly, I can-after a tough problem like the drought that many of us had many sleepless nights over and had to make the hard decisions over-can sit back and talk about people should have done this or done that in an emergency situation. Like the W.S.S.C. when they had their drought, they shut down a substantial number of the businesses in the county, and as it turned out were only using about 20 percent of the water in the county, which caused unemployment, and we didn't do that type of thing, you see. We operate a different way. So, you can always look back on the serious emergency like a drought and say that this or that should be done, when you weren't involved in having to make the hard decisions at the time and criticize those decisions. Anybody can do that to anybody else, and I understand that, but we have learned a lot from that experience and I can assure you that that knowledge will be put to good use. |