Fauquier Times 08/02/2023

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DOYLE VISITS NATS PARK: Former Kettle Run star is Colorado Rockies’ rookie. SPORTS, PAGES 11-13 August 2, 2023

Our 206th year | Vol. 206, No. 31 | www.Fauquier.com | $1.50 VIRGINIA PRESS ASSOCIATION: BEST SMALL NEWSPAPER IN VIRGINIA 2017-2022

On ‘the edge of a cliff’ Why Warrenton’s ailing sewage treatment plant needs an $80M overhaul By Hunter Savery

Fauquier Times Staff Writer

For most Warrenton residents, the Fourth of July was a fun and relaxing day. It was a different story, however, at the town’s wastewater treatment plant. Employees there were clocking 24-hour shifts – with some working 10 to 12 hours without breaks – because the decades-old facility was on the brink of collapse. “Sludge” – the polite term for every bit of solid material that gets flushed down Warrenton’s toilets – had become backed up in the facility’s “secondary clarifiers,” one of the last steps in the sewage treatment process. By Wednesday, July 5, the plant couldn’t handle the town’s output. Trucks began hauling more than 12,000 pounds of sludge 39 miles to

Winchester – the only facility in the region willing to accept Warrenton’s waste. For days, the plant’s employees worked around the clock to keep the system running, and it wasn’t the first time. “I don’t like working on the cusp,” said Steven Friend, Warrenton’s assistant director of public works. “There’s a reason you don’t run along the edge of a cliff.” Years of deferred maintenance have left Warrenton’s only sewer and wastewater treatment plant in fragile condition. The town will now spend five years and an estimated $80.1 million restoring the plant to proper working order. To put the cost in perspective, the expense is about double that of Warrenton’s annual $40 million budget. See SEWAGE, page 2

PHOTO BY HUNTER SAVERY.

Replacing parts: While much of Warrenton’s wastewater treatment plant is 66 years old, there have been some recent replacements. This “moving bed biofilm reactor,” added in 2020, oxygenates and denitrifies the treated wastewater.

Region’s sluggish solar can’t match surging data center demand By Peter Cary

Piedmont Journalism Foundation

PHOTO BY JOHN CALHOUN

This 225-acre solar farm near Nokesville is one of only two operating utilityscale solar facilities in Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William counties.

The two latest utility-scale projects proposed for Fauquier County are off to a rough start. Back in April, the planning commission rejected both an 832-acre solar facility proposed near Midland as well as a 466-acre project sited near Bristersburg. Open Roads Renewables, of Austin, Texas, is developing the Midland project, dubbed “Alameda Solar.” Last week, it held an open house to showcase its re-design for the 70-megawatt project, which, if approved on this second try, would produce enough electricity to power about 18,000 homes.

Torch Clean Energy, the developer of the Bristersburg-area project, is appealing the denial of its project to the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 10. The two projects illustrate Fauquier County’s rocky record with solar farms. With a comprehensive plan that favors the county’s rural lands and economy – plus residents who don’t want to see solar panels next door – county officials have so far approved just one solar farm, which Dominion built on its own property at the southern end of the county in 2017. See SOLAR, page 4

Memorial service set for beloved school security officer Sal Torelli, page 3

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Fauquier Times 08/02/2023 by Fauquier Times (52 issues) & Prince William Times (52 issues) - Issuu