Fairfax Water Files ‘Answer’ to F.C. Lawsuit
Attorneys for the Fairfax Water Authority filed a former “answer” to the lawsuit filed in federal court by the City of Falls Church Monday, claiming that the City “enjoys no exclusive right” to sell its water in certain areas of Fairfax County. They have petitioned the court for a summary dismissal of the suit. But Falls Church City Attorney Roy Thorpe told the News-Press yesterday that this comes as no surprise. “We expected this and look forward to defending our lawsuit,” he said. A hearing on the motion for dismissal is scheduled for March 30 before U.S. District judge T.S. Ellis III. Falls Church sued when it learned that for the first time in 48 years last month, Fairfax violated a line of demarcation that had separated the service areas of the two water systems, with a stated intent to do so routinely from now on. Although a formal agreement stipulating the boundaries expired in 1989, it was never officially terminated and the City and county continued an unbroken pattern of observing it up until very recently. The City contends in its suit that the federal government’s contract with the City for water from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Dalcarlia Reservoir in Washington, D.C., includes a commitment by the City to pay a share of E.P.A. mandated upgrades that would be jeopardized by the new intent by Fairfax to “poach” on Falls Church territory.
