Lake Newport Water to Flow to Lake Anne

In an effort to keep RELAC running by raising the low Lake Anne water level, RA has authorized Lake Anne access to Lake Newport water.  Read more on the Reston Patch & an RA Press Release

RA Statement on RELAC

A Statement to Reston Association Members who rely upon the RELAC cooling system

Reston Association is currently actively working on a way to bring immediate relief to our residents who are customers on the RELAC system. It relies on the waters of LakeAnne to air condition about 600 homes along the lake.

We are in an unusual situation, one brought on by extremely high temperatures and drought.

Reston’s first priority is the health  and comfort of our residents. We are keenly sympathetic to those are affected by this situation

We are closely working with Aqua Virginia and Aqua America, the utility company that owns and manages the RELAC system. We are also working with the neighborhood associations most affected by the lower than usual lake levels and high temperatures. The goal is to find an immediate solution, such as adding a temporary second pump, which Aqua Virginia is prepared to do.

A complicating factor is that the private golf course won litigation several years ago, giving the course unfettered access to Lake Anne’s waters for irrigation. This is per the deed of the developer. Reston Association has not been successful in our attempts to work with the golf course management.

Reston Association is working with the affected homeowners to find a way to meet the immediate need. As we focus our attention on the short-term, immediate needs of the community, know that we are organizing a task force of residents and Reston Association staff/leadership to determine the next steps to meet the long terms need. Again, our primary concern is the well-being of our residents.

Thank you,
Ken Knueven, President
Reston Association Board of Directors

Lake Anne Water Level Low, Impacting RELAC Performance

Article by the Reston Patch's Karen Goff sums up the RELAC situation to date.

Low Lake Anne Levels Concern RELAC Users

With Lake Anne way below typical water level, can water-run cooling system keep up?

Another RELAC Rate Hike?

Below is a report by Waterview Cluster's Dick Kennedy on the proposed RELAC rate Hike. See his comments to the State Corporation Commission here.

Greetings Neighbors,
As you may know a rating hearing occurred on RELAC on June 5, 2012 in Richmond VA before the State Corporation Commission [SCC]which regulates utilities in Virginia. I drove down and testified as a user upset with the unreasonably high cost of the system and its effectiveness. I have attached my comments outline from which I spoke. The hearing lasted from about 1000 AM until 330 PM. It was tedious but I am glad I went to get a sense of the communication between AQUA and the Judge for the SCC.

The bottom line is that the SCC Staff and AQUA agreed by stipulation to a rate increase reduced from AQUA's request of $ 108,775 to $ 78,000 or close to a 15% increase that will be in effect as an interim rate for the rest of 2012. The county staff questioned AQUA at length and in detail on performance output by AQUA's records and AQUA's records on customer complaints. There were clear deficiencies. On the matter of using Cooling Towers which I asked about, AQUA responded that they have not decided yet to in stall them. They said it would cost $ 250,000 to $ 400,000 installed. It may be that AQUA America owns them and they would sell them to AQUA RELAC.

Who knows what lies ahead with RELAC??

The case, PUE-2011-00130 can be tracked on line at http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case

Dick Kennedy

DRB Approves Aqua, VA Cooling Tower Proposal

Drawing submitted by Aqua, VA of the proposed cooling tower installation as seen from  the tennis courts.

At last night's DRB meeting, the DRB voted to approve the addition of the cooling tower structure proposed by Aqua, VA to be added to the current RELAC facility. The cooling towers are intended to increase the efficiency of the operation and eliminate the need for the diesel generator at times of low lake water levels. The proposal includes sound proofing/noise reduction features designed to keep any additional plant noise levels down.

Aqua, VA will now have to decide whether to green light the project. If they do, they will start the permit process and then hope to start construction in the Spring with the goal of being operational before a diesel generator becomes necessary this coming season.

DOCUMENTS
Aqua Letter
Application
More Drawings

Tuesday 1/24/24: RELAC Cooling Towers to Be Proposed to DRB

AQUA, VA (RELAC's owner) has sent the Design Review Board (DRB) at RA a packet with a proposal to DRB for installing two water evaporators (cooling towers). Proposal to be presented at the DRB meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 24th.  Meeting starts at RA Headquarters @ 7PM (Aqua is Item #6 on the DRB agenda).

Hickory Cluster president, Fred Swartzendruber, spoke with the engineer at AQUA who prepared the proposal and he has agreed to send PDF copies of the documentation (including before and after renderings and acoustic data) due to the short notice timing, docs below.  

DOCUMENTS
Application
More Drawings

RELAC System Depressurized 10/27/11

I wanted to pass along that we have shut down and depressurized the system.  This will allow customers who wish to perform maintenance on their system to do so - especially those who have concerns that their valves may not hold.  Please pass this along to your residents.

We will recharged the system in three weeks.  

Thanks, 
Greg O'Dell
Aqua America

RELAC/AQUA VA Billing Questions?

If you have questions about your RELAC/Aqua VA invoice, a knowledgable contact in Aqua VA's billing/collections department has been recommended: 

Janice Bohlin, jnbohlin@aquaamerica.com

RELAC to Close for the 2011 Season on 10/14

Relac Service 6/25/11

From Michael Poss:
Lake anne water levels are apparently low and within one inch of what is critical for proper relac a/c chiller operation. So the relac team has brought in an external auxilliary pump. They are now hooking it up to make sure adequate service is available to customers during this period of warm summer weather. The pump should be online within a few hours.

RELAC Service 6/16/11

Several residents have reported that there are grinding noises and vibrations coming from the RELAC plant, similar to what happened before the pump failure last month. I have notified Greg Odell at Aqua VA in Richmond but have not heard back. Hopefully this is not a precursor of another breakdown.

Fred Swartzendruber
fswartzendruber@gmail.com 

RELAC Service 5/29/11

RELAC Update: 10:28am Sunday 5/29

I spoke with Mike Coleman at the plant and had an email exchange with the head of Aqua Virginia in Richmond. At 11:30 last night a pump failed, which blew out some control switches which are now being repaired. One chiller has been restarted and they say we should start to notice some cooling by 1:00 this afternoon.

Fred Swartzendruber

RA Projects in and Near HC

LAKE ANNE CANAL DREDGING
On April 25, Reston Association began dredging Lake Anne Canal, located near North Shore Pool, and will continue for about another week. We are using a small floating dredging machine at the canal, which hydraulically pumps the soil and water from the lake bottom through hoses to dewatering bags located on the old volleyball court in Hickory Cluster. The water level will remain unaffected. There will be some engine noise from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. each weekday and maybe on Saturday. There will be some turbidity in the lake during the dredging period, but this will be about the same as experienced after a strong thunderstorm.
Should you have any special needs, questions or concerns, please contact Dan Warfield at 703-435-6549 or Danny@reston.org. 
Note: RA task done every six/seven years and to be complete by RELAC operation season.

MORE WORK AT LAKE ANNE – LAKE FOUNTAIN TO BE REPLACED
Along with the Lake Anne fountain replacement, there will be several upgrades necessary. These include a new electrical system to operate the fountain, removal of several abandoned conduits on the bottom of the lake and dredging the bottom to allow for proper operation of the fountain. The new fountain will be in operation by the end of May, barring any unforeseen difficulties or scheduling conflicts.
Please contact Paul Priestley at 703-435-6541 or email Paul@Reston.org if you have any questions.


Lake Anne Dredging & HC Stream Restoration Response 

Reston Association has an easement giving them access through Hickory Cluster for dredging the pond to ensure the water supply needed by RELAC. In the past RA has brought-in heavy earthmoving equipment, and used our volleyball court as a staging area for the work. Any damage was then rectified by RA when the work was complete. This time, RA has hired Wetland Studies & Solutions, which is using a new technology to dredge the cove next to the RELAC inlet, without bringing in earthmoving equipment (which I consider a big advantage). The cove has a heavy build-up of silt (about 3 ft., according to the site foreman) and this was not removed in recent years because it would have required temporarily lowering the lake level, then draining water from Lake Newport to restore the level at Lake Anne when the work was done; this is also quite disruptive and again requires the use of earthmoving equipment. The tradeoff is that the filtration bags on the volleyball court need to remain for 2-3 weeks after the pumping is finished so that the silt is dry enough to haul away. Compared with the use of the volleyball court as a staging area for earthmovers, I don't consider the filtration bags to be a real nuisance, but perhaps you see it differently.

WSS is not dredging the pond at this point because that is slated to happen as part of the upcoming stream restoration project which was discussed at length at the special community meeting last October. The volleyball court will again be used as a staging area for the restoration project, and WSS has committed to restoring the area to the community's specification when the project is finished. After discussion with participants at a community forum, we have asked WSS to convert that area to low-maintenance landscaping using native species and consistent with the surrounding area which will be replanted as part of the conservation project. The engineering design of the restoration is intended to preclude the need for dredging in the future (or at least to greatly minimize it), so if things go well we would no longer have periodic disruption of the site in order to protect RELAC.

At the community meeting on the restoration project last October, the main area of concern was the design of the standard bridge which will replace our existing (and delapidated) wooden bridge next to the pond. The community was very unhappy with the visual elements of the standard bridge, and Ralph Youngren was asked to come up with a design more appropriate to the Goodman architecture in Hickory Cluster. Ralph and Richard Speier (who established the Goodman Fund) held several meetings with WSS, RA, and cluster members on the site to discuss options, and drawings were presented at a member forum during one of the Board meetings. The preferred design was sent to WSS and RA representing the Cluster's recommendation, and this design was accepted. Not surprisingly, the upgraded bridge is going to cost more ($8,850 at last estimate) and the cluster was initially asked to contribute $3,000 toward this. We were able to negotiate an agreement with WSS that they would forgo this request and fully cover the additional bridge cost if the Cluster was able to move quickly on approving the conservation and construction easements (since delays could be costly to them). After a legal review by the Cluster's attorney, and some minor wording revisions which he recommended to the text of the easements to protect the Cluster's rights, the Board approved the easements and the permitting process is now well underway.

I am still hoping that the project will be able to begin in the Fall, though there are still some approvals in the pipeline, and WSS is also facing financing gaps because of a decline in payments into the stream restoration bank (which is financing the project) from developers as a result of the financial crisis. WSS has said that they are working on bridging finance (no pun intended) to enable the project to start on-time so that they can keep their crew at work instead of demobilizing them when the Forest Edge phase is complete, and then remobilizing at a later date (which is very inefficient for them). The permits are not within their control, so they can't give any guarantees about when the work will actually begin. We will provide the latest update at the Cluster's Annual Meeting later this month.

Best regards,
Fred Swartzendruber
HC Board President

RELAC Rate Increase Will Stand

The Hearing Examiner's Report can be seen here and the following is a summary by Steve Sinclair from Fairfax County

The Hearing Examiner's report came out [August 4th]. The hearing examiner granted the rate increase agreed to in the stipulation (between the SCC and the company).

The Hearing Examiner also recommends directing RELAC to implement certain quality of service measurements. We think that is progress, but not strong enough and we may submit comments to that affect.

Excerpted below are several Findings and Recommendations of interest.

(16) In accordance with the Stipulation, RELAC should continue to provide written information to assist customers in properly maintaining their own equipment;

(17) RELAC should be directed to train its personnel to record accurately and consistently, information already required by its plant record forrns, especially as to supply and return temperatures and pressures, and outside temperatures;

(18) RELAC should be directed to record supply temperatures and pressures, and outside temperatures when the Company makes inspections or answers service complaint calls at customer premises;

(19) RELAC should be directed to document quality of service complaint calls, including whether the cooling issues customers reported resulted from problems in the system or inadequate maintenance/operation of internal units or other factors in the home;

(20) RELAC should be directed to establish a web page on the Aqua America website to provide customers with preventive maintenance information and with contact information; and

(21) RELAC should be directed to continue its discussions with neighborhood cluster presidents, with Staff and Fairfax County given an opportunity to participate in such discussions.

Any additional questions, please let me know. By the way, only formal parties to the case (and there are only 3) may file comments on the Hearing Examiner's report. However, if customers want to forward their comments to us, we will consider including them, if appropriate.

Thanks,
Steve Sinclair

RELAC Rate Increase Hearing 5/3/10

The Fairfax County hearing addressing the proposed RELAC/Aqua Virginia rate hike occurred on May 3rd, 2010. Thank you to those who were able to attend the meeting and share comments & concerns with the State Corporation Commission.

If you did attend the meeting, you are encouraged to comment to this post (all others welcome too, of course). Below is a link to the HC president's comments presented at the hearing.

Comments of HC president Fred Schwartzendruber presented at the hearing.

RELAC Start Time 2010

Note From Aqua Virginia...

With the steamy forecast for the weekend, we have the opportunity to utilize the changesyou have suggested for starting the system. I wanted to let you know that we have started circulating chilled water. From what I have heard, Vantage Hill is currently not receiving chilled water, they have been doing maintenance to their system and plan to turn their valves on Monday. We have been checking the mains and bleeding air from the system but there may still be some work to do. We would expect that by day end (5/1) that all areas should be receiving chilled water. Any customers who are having issues can call our customer service at 877-987-2782 to set up an appointment with a technician.

Gregory Odell
Chief Operating Officer
Aqua Virginia, Inc.

RELAC Meeting Notes

Notes on RELAC meeting at RA, March 22, 2010

The Reston Association hosted a public meeting on Monday evening, March 22nd 2010, to give RELAC customers an opportunity to meet with staff of the Fairfax County department which deals with utilities and cable companies to discuss the proposed RELAC rate increase. The county staff participating in the meeting are attorneys and utility specialists with considerable experience (though not experienced on district A/C, which is highly unusual) and their names and contact information have been posted on this blog. Please feel free to contact them direct to express any views you have regarding the RELAC rate increase.

As you know, several months ago Aqua Virginia filed a rate increase proposal with the State Corporation Commission in Richmond, which regulates utilities in Virginia. The average increase Aqua is asking for RELAC customers is about 56% over existing tariffs, which have not been changed since Aqua bought the company. The documents filed with the SCC indicate that RELAC is steadily losing money and a significant increase is needed to keep RELAC solvent. We were aware of their intent to file for an increase, as the General Manager of Aqua VA, Greg O'Dell, had met several times with a group of affected cluster presidents during the past year and mentioned that they were planning to request a “long overdue” rate increase.

At last Monday’s meeting, County staff explained that they were asked to become engaged in this case in response to concerns expressed by residents on the RELAC system. They have reviewed the materials provided by Aqua as part of the filing, and will be going to Richmond to participate in the April 20 hearing in front of an SCC examiner, and will present the County's views on the requested increase. The County has also arranged with the SCC to hold a second hearing in northern Virginia for the convenience of residents unable to go to Richmond. That meeting will be on the evening of May 3 at 7pm in the Fairfax Count Govt. Center. The Commissioners will review the transcripts of the two hearings prior to making their decision: in other words, the Richmond meeting is not “more important” than the Fairfax meeting and no decision will be made until after both have taken place and all oral and written comments have been reviewed. Aqua's management will only be present at the Richmond hearing, so anyone who is anxious to hear them in person would need to travel to Richmond. Speakers at the Richmond meeting will be under oath, and the County attorney will have the ability to cross-examine Aqua’s team in Richmond.

Based on their analysis of the RELAC accounts, the County staff feel that a slightly lower increase would be justified, since there were a couple of items included by Aqua in the rate calculation which the staff believe should not be included. However, the difference is actually quite small, and the bottom line is that County staff currently believe that RELAC will not be financially viable without a significant increase in revenues. Their analysis does not address the question why Aqua didn't apply for smaller increases before they got into such a deep hole, but simply arises from analysis of operating costs and revenues reported by Aqua.

A number of points were raised after the County staff had completed their explanation, on topics such as the future viability of RELAC, the possiblity of conversion to geothermal cooling, Aqua’s stated desire to sell RELAC in order to get out of the A/C business, asking RA to allow pilot projects to test alternatives, whether shortcomings in RELAC service are inherent in the nature of the system or due to poor maintenance by homeowners, etc. On most of these the County staff had no answers, but urged citizens to express their concerns on the record so that the SCC commissioners have a clear picture of the views of consumers before they rule on a rate increase. Dick Kennedy of Waterview Cluster asked whether service standards could be better defined and enforced, since much of the debate about RELAC is between people satisfied with present cooling service and others who are not, without much data available to inform the debate. The tariff as presently worded is not very clear on the definition of acceptable service (whether water temperature is measured at the plant or at the home, how much flow is required in order to provide adequate cooling, etc.). The County staff answered that this would be an important topic to raise for the commissioners.

In my view, this is probably the most important point coming out of Monday’s meeting: We can’t expect the SCC to engage on topics such as geothermal alternatives or to help Aqua look for a potential buyer. But we could reasonably request them to sharpen the definition of “acceptable service,” and to direct Aqua to introduce a monitoring program which establishes whether this regulated utility is meeting its legal obligation as a precondition for any rate increases.
-Fred Schwartzendruber

RELAC Rate Increase Meeting with Fairfax County Staff on 3/22/10

RELAC customers met with Fairfax county staff at Reston Association headquarters on Monday evening March, 22, 2010.

RELAC Rate Case no. PUE-2009-00129
SCC home Page

The RELAC case has not been heard yet but an interim rate increase was granted by VA to effect customers beginning with the 2010 season. Notification was sent to all customers in January detailing the rate increase. Should RELAC lose their case, they will be required to reimburse customers for the rate increase.

Fairfax County staff working on the case:
Marilyn McHugh, Assistant County Attorney

Steve Sinclair, Chief, Public Utilities Branch, Department of Cable and Consumer Services, 703-324-5955

Susan Hafeli, Utilities Analyst, Public Utilities Branch, Department of Cable and Consumer Services

Important dates coming up...
April 8
RELAC rebuttal deadline to answer concerns already addressed to them by Fairfax County.

April 13
Deadline for all written comments to be submitted. Online Submission Link Case #PUE-2009-00129

April 20
Initial hearing in Richmond, VA. RELAC will be make statements and be cross examined... Public statements welcome.

May 3
Public hearing at Fairfax County Government Center, Conference rooms 2 & 3 at 7pm. Public statements welcome.

RELAC Rate Increase Mtg 3/22/10

Letter concerning the discussion & scheduled meeting re: RELAC rate hike:

Dear All,
I have had several conversations with Mr. Steve Sinclair, Chief – Public Utilities Branch (Fairfax County Department of Cable Communications & Consumer Protection), about the plans for Fairfax County to intervene in the proposed rate increase for RELAC as requested by Aqua Virginia. Attorneys from the County attorney’s Office and Mr. Sinclair have asked for RA’s assistance in arranging an initial information gathering session with users of the RELAC System. The session has been scheduled for Monday, 22 March @7:00 p.m. in RA’s Main Conference Room.

It is my understanding that Mr. Sinclair and others would like to hear your concerns and issues regarding the proposed rate increase, as well as your service related issues with the RELAC System. Additionally, they plan to explain the County’s role in the rate case; outline how the State Corporation Commission procedures are set up for the case; and walk you through the public witness process, which allows customers to provide comments at the public hearing on the rate case.

Mr. Sinclair and the others from the County are looking forward to meeting with as many of the RELAC users who can attend the session. Please reach out to others and inform them of the session.

Milton W. Matthews
Chief Executive Officer
Reston Association
703-437-9580
www.reston.org
RA Vision: Leading the model community where all can live, work, and play.

RELAC: Plant Improvement Needed

RELAC cluster presidents and residents met on 6/2. Our Aqua Virginia representative was not able to attend but sent this letter. The proposed and necessary new pump station for the intake would cost $175,000 and the average user (average being $770/yr) an additional $160.00 per season.