Local water officials in Montgomery County, Washington, are looking into the possibility of utilizing the Travilah Quarry, in Rockville, Maryland, to provide water storage for the local DC, Maryland, and Virginia water utilities in the event that water from the Potomac River would become unavailable or undrinkable, reports Washington Top.
The Potomac River is the sole water supply for the District of Columbia, Arlington County and the City of Falls Church and the primary water supply for two other local water utilities.
Although the size and structure of the Travilah Quarry seem desirable to local water officials, there is a snag: the quarry’s owners still operate the quarry.
“All quarries have a finite life span,” said Richard Freedman, director of land and environment for the Mid-Atlantic region for Aggregate Industries, the United Kingdom-based company that owns the property. “This quarry has about 60 years of life left.”
Freedman said the quarry company has allowed water utility consultants to conduct scientific testing on its property.
In the meantime, the quarry continues to provide material for local construction projects. And the potential water storage capacity will only increase as the quarry grows deeper.
“In its deepest points, it’s about 450 feet deep now, but some is at ground level,” said Freedman of the quarry’s current dimensions.
Another advantage of the Travilah Quarry site is that it could feed all three utilities and crosslink the three water systems, providing a level of redundancy and protection missing today.
But the Travilah option would require major infrastructure investments, potentially by local, state, and federal entities, with tunnels needed to connect the quarry to the Washington Aqueduct, WSSC and Fairfax Water processing plants, including tunnels underneath the Potomac River.
