What exactly were these facilities used for in Western Fairfax County? Photos below from 1976 aerial photos. Link is to modern sat photos. I have checked out the sites and the structures are still there. Looks like some sort of water treatment facilities? Sewer treatment plants? How did they work?

Based on Historic Aerials they were both built between 1963 and 1964.

https://goo.gl/maps/N654t19CFhp

https://goo.gl/maps/4m3qkuCB1552
Attachments:

Water treatment of some sort. The round structures are clarifiers. The others are holding or settling ponds

The second now is a Fairfax County Park Authority facility. Looks to be used for storing and loading sand and gravel, etc. I can't see any signage for the first but it looks very similar. Given that I'd guess that they probably were county property then too. Not very big. Maybe old treatment facilities for Chantilly before building out the larger county treatment plants?

You found a photo of the old Soylent Green production facility that closed in 1973

Related to mining/quarrying.

There was another in Centreville but that one has been built over. It was also constructed between 1963-1964.

https://goo.gl/maps/zpjVsLTq4s22
Attachments:

M7UDC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Related to mining/quarrying.


There's no mining/quarrying.

Also mines and quarries don't use clarifiers like that. No reason to.

As above, they're wastewater treatment facilities.

Note they're all located on or near streams where processed water was discharged.

From the Interwebs...

"In the late 1960s things were really bad, green algae blooms were suffocating the Occoquan Reservoir—one of the area's main water supplies. Fish kills were common and finally the state of Virginia stepped in and ordered a moratorium on new development until community officials could clean up the mess.

The problems were traced to a series of 11 poorly operating secondary sewage treatment plants in the Centreville area spewing nasty stuff into the watershed that was draining into the reservoir. The solution was both technically advanced for its time and highly controversial.

The 11 plants would be shut down and replaced with a massive regional plant operated by the multi-jurisdictional Upper Occoquan Service Authority."

"In 1978, the UOSA Regional Water Reclamation Plant located on 470 acres (1.9 km2) in western Fairfax County, commenced operations and replaced eleven small secondary treatment plants in the region."

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?000+reg+9VAC25-410-10

If you really want to dig, find this report and it should have detailed information on the locations of the smaller plants that existed at the time:

Metcalf and Eddy Engineers, Inc., “A Comprehensive Pollution Abatement Program for the Occoquan Watershed,” 1970.

Also makes sense that it now would be Park Authority property. Not specific to these sites but the same probably was done in a similar way for the same reason:

Quote

During the 1970s, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA) acquired 5,000 acres
and created a series of contiguous parks along the Fairfax County shoreline of the OccoquanBull Run Stream Valley. This was in recognition that preserving a large buffer area around the
Reservoir could contribute to protecting water quality. These parks continue to serve a public
recreational use; act as a conservation area for forest, wetlands and wildlife; and help protect
the shoreline of the Reservoir. Even before the NVRPA effort, the Fairfax County Park Authority
began to acquire and operate parks in the Occoquan Watershed, eventually totaling several
thousand acres. Twenty-six parks have been added since the downzoning in 1982.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Upper+Occoquan+Service+Authority/@38.8089413,-77.4649709,1697m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89b65b5316590a61:0xd9f655201784476!8m2!3d38.8103308!4d-77.4620434

Thanks Fluent. Just the lead I was looking for. Now I need to find the other 8 plants.

Found 5 of the 11. You can see the Upper Occoquan Service Authority under construction in the 1976 aerial.

All 11 of the secondary treatment plants were decommissioned in 1978 when the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority Water Reclamation Facility came online.

Anyway, UOSA website has some interesting schematics on how their system works.
https://www.uosa.org/DisplayContentUOSA.asp?ID=490
Attachments:

Cool shit (pun intended)!!!!

Follow the main drainage creeks and back upstream along the larger branches off of them. Most likely where they'll be.

Not sure why you're interested in them but probably can find others in different areas of the county along primary drainage that runs in other directions like toward the Potomac. Fairly standard way of doing things at the time.

USGS topo maps and County storm water planning maps will show the main drainage flows.

This is an interesting cover story. But it is obvious these are UFO landing, refueling and decontamination sites. In a couple of those photos you can see the reflection of the landing craft as they are coming down.

I'm pretty sure I can explain how the system worked but amazing it was hiding in plain sight like this.

Old Nike missile sites disguised as sewage plants.

NORAD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Old Nike missile sites disguised as sewage plants.

Sorry, but they did not even try to "disguise" the Nike missile sites. The missiles were on erector launchers above ground. No hiding that, nor did they see the need to.

One of those sewage plants was on cub run about a mile east of route 29. It was at an intersection with a gas pipeline . It was abandoned for many years until shortly after Virginia Run was built . It was then razed and the large pond filled in . I used to ride dirt bikes in that area in the mid to late eighties.

This was that Cub Run plant. Have hiked back there many a time. Did not realize it was formerly a sewer treatment plant. Often wondered why there were open fields there instead of tree cover.
Attachments:

That is the one. What year is that image from?

Ffx spunky told you morons about the oil of people, but you wouldn't listen.

Aed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of those sewage plants was on cub run about a
> mile east of route 29. It was at an intersection
> with a gas pipeline . It was abandoned for many
> years until shortly after Virginia Run was built .
> It was then razed and the large pond filled in . I
> used to ride dirt bikes in that area in the mid to
> late eighties.

Visited this place a few times back when we were young boy scouts working toward our sewage treatment merit badge. Was always amazed how it just disappeared into development almost overnigyt it seemed. I remember seeing tons of old beer cans and bottles back there, i think it was also a place for the older teens to hang out for a long night of drinking.

old & in the way Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aed Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > One of those sewage plants was on cub run about
> a
> > mile east of route 29. It was at an
> intersection
> > with a gas pipeline . It was abandoned for many
> > years until shortly after Virginia Run was built
> .
> > It was then razed and the large pond filled in .
> I
> > used to ride dirt bikes in that area in the mid
> to
> > late eighties.
>
> Visited this place a few times back when we were
> young boy scouts working toward our sewage
> treatment merit badge. Was always amazed how it
> just disappeared into development almost overnigyt
> it seemed. I remember seeing tons of old beer
> cans and bottles back there, i think it was also a
> place for the older teens to hang out for a long
> night of drinking.

This one was formally called the "Middle Run Sewer Treatment Plant." We all thought it was funny to use the word "run" and "sewer" as these plant names.

Aed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That is the one. What year is that image from?

1976

Turns out that there were only 5 treatment plants in Fairfax County - the other 6 were in Prince William County. No wonder I couldn't find them.
Attachments:

This is a more close-up of the Middle Cub Run, Big Rocky Run and Greenbriar locations and sewer routes.
Attachments:

This is a more close-up of the Upper Cub Run and Flatlick Branch plant locations and sewer lines.
Attachments:

It seems that the Greenbriar treatment plant (1976 aerial) was rated to service 5,000 people while the other 4 plants 2,500 people each. Apparently these treatment plants were rather crappy because there were limits placed on the amount sewage effluent they were allowed to dump into the Occoquan. You can see that there were algae blooms even at the treatment facilities.
Attachments:

Fairfax County Time Machine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It seems that the Greenbriar treatment plant (1976
> aerial) was rated to service 5,000 people


Proper, Prior, Planning, Prevents, Piss, Poor, Performance

Greenbriar itself has almost 1,800 three and four bedroom homes and they only allotted for 5,000 people?

Is that where the gastro bar is. The one I keep hearing about ?? I know what a "bar screen" in a sewage plant is for

Ill save you from hearing the ghastly details

But if your daring and must know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_screen

When your as brave as me you can keep one hand clean and eat a sandwich while cleaning the screen with the other. Smell ?? After a few hours you'll never know what a smell is. Just like beer after 3 they all taste the same

Amazing as it seems, these old turd sorters appear to have been a primary culprit in slowing down development in western Fairfax County. According to the book (The Fight For Fairfax) the Occoquan Reservoir - a major source for drinking water in Northern Virginia - was "under duress." The effluent from these treatment plants were being pumped into the watershed and "contained high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus causing blue-green blooms of cyanobacteria algae that produced water quality problems."

Until the planned construction of a new state-of-the-art sewer treatment plant - the current UOSA facility - the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors used lack of adequate sewerage to fight development.

What I don't understand is these 5 Fairfax County treatment plants were constructed in 1963-64 and by 1968 studies were referring to them as "outdated." More poor planning. I would imagine those plants cost quite a bit of money.

One of the reports F.Fluent refers to can be found here:
https://www.novaregion.org/415/Occoquan-Watershed-Task-Force

The UOSA plant was completed in 1978. Over 85% of all homes in Centreville have been built since 1980. Direct correlation.

This will likely be my last post in this thread. A final salute to these once proud filtraters of feces.

First photo is from the Upper Cub Run site and the second from Flat Lick Branch. Should note both sites are completely fenced off with no tresspassing signs (I did not cross the fences).
Attachments:

Fairfax County Time Machine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This will likely be my last post in this thread.
> A final salute to these once proud filtraters of
> feces.
>
> First photo is from the Upper Cub Run site and the
> second from Flat Lick Branch. Should note both
> sites are completely fenced off with no
> tresspassing signs (I did not cross the fences).



Thank you for the time and effort you put into this thread. I enjoyed following it. Just ordered The Fight for Fairfax; had not heard of it before. If I ever come across something in the future that is pertinent to this subject I will add it to this thread.

GB Panda Wrote:

> Greenbriar itself has almost 1,800 three and four
> bedroom homes and they only allotted for 5,000
> people?

You know that white trash rednecks can't count.

Fairfax County Time Machine Wrote:

> What I don't understand is these 5 Fairfax County
> treatment plants were constructed in 1963-64 and
> by 1968 studies were referring to them as
> "outdated." More poor planning. I would imagine
> those plants cost quite a bit of money.

White trash rednecks suck at engineering and planning, too.

Did they still smell like poopy?

the Fairfax County rules say: if that facility spills that the government will attempt to fix the issue - without a timeline or cost cap, AND NO PENALTIES

HOWEVER - the county fines and harasses any homeowner or private business that has a lesser "leak"

THOSE ARE THE RULES: as written by your county rats

that's a CIA photo of a military facility

obviously it's a de-watering facility

actually the empty pipe sitting above ground is "quite interesting"

it's gone to waste, for one thing

depending on where the water came from, and how the earthen pond is situated, it could be a pond that leaches chemical waste into the ground water

you wouldn't want to be a well owner/user downhill of that "thing", if i am correct