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U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va, right, speaks during a tour of the Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant under construction in Stephenson Thursday.
Frederick Water Executive Director Eric Lawrence, right, leads U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., on a tour of the Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant under construction in Stephenson Thursday.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., right, talks with Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant Chief Operator Brandon Abshire during a tour of the facility under construction in Stephenson Thursday. The plant, which can treat up to 8 million gallons of raw water a day, is slated to open at the end of the year.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va, right, speaks during a tour of the Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant under construction in Stephenson Thursday.
Frederick Water Executive Director Eric Lawrence, right, leads U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., on a tour of the Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant under construction in Stephenson Thursday.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., right, talks with Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant Chief Operator Brandon Abshire during a tour of the facility under construction in Stephenson Thursday. The plant, which can treat up to 8 million gallons of raw water a day, is slated to open at the end of the year.
STEPHENSON — Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he has been wanting to see Frederick Water’s new Henry F. Sliwinski Water Treatment Plant for some time now.
Kaine visited the $32 million plant that is under construction on Hot Run Drive just north of the new Stonewall Park ballfields on Thursday while making rounds through the Northern Shenandoah Valley. The visit followed a trip to the Emil & Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center in Winchester and preceded a Front Royal visit.
In addressing the group gathered at the plant, which consisted of Frederick County Board of Supervisors members, county Planning Commission members, Frederick Water board members and other guests, Kaine said he’s a bit of a “nerd” when it comes to infrastructure projects.
“Using water from a quarry, that’s not what I usually see. If I’m touring infrastructure projects — and I’ve done Richmond, Alexandria and Lynchburg in the last couple of months — they’re all pulling water out of a river or a stream,” he said. “What an interesting innovation to combine together with a quarry operator to find a way to filter that water and use it for Frederick County and maybe for others.”
The treatment plant serves as a link between a quarry and the plant, according to Frederick Water Executive Director Eric Lawrence. The quarry is a 400-foot-deep hole with about 1.7 billion gallons of storage. A 300-foot deep and long tunnel, which is currently about 60 feet underwater, was also built.
The plant will draw water from quarries owned by Carmeuse Lime and Stone. It will have the ability to produce 8 million gallons of treated water per day. Frederick Water, which serves more than 17,000 residential, commercial and industrial accounts, also will be able to draw water from Opequon Creek, if demand increases.
Kaine said when he was working as city councilman and mayor in Richmond, they had significant needs concerning water treatment and were always wondering about ways to ease ratepayers’ burdens.
“From back in my local government days, I’m really interested in how communities figure out how to do this and particularly how to do it without making ratepayers suffer too much. I know that means you’ve got to be creative,” he said just before the tour.
Throughout the tour, Kaine visited with Lawrence and Brandon Abshire, who is overseeing the project for Frederick Water, as well as Carmeuse representatives.
Lawrence told Kaine the facility is on schedule to undergo testing cycles by the year’s end.
Among the most interesting aspects of the tour, Kaine said, was seeing how the project will work and how the community was able to pull it off.
“An important part of infrastructure is water and wastewater, and Virginia has been able to do pretty well,” he said. “Everybody in Virginia turns on their tap every day and thinks it’s magic and water will always come out of it. Most people don’t think about what it will take to maintain reliable, steady, clean water when you turn that tap on. There are some parts in Virginia in Appalachia where you can’t count on that happening.”
Kaine said he was happy that the project received $3.6 million in funding from last year’s Omnibus bill. While he said projects are not receiving two rounds of such funding, $55 billion for water infrastructure projects is included in a federal infrastructure bill. He added that grant funding is also available.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the visit was Kaine simply being able to lay his own eyes on the project.
“If we’re going to be making requests for earmarks or weighing in to the DEH (Department of Environmental Health) for more state funding, it’s a lot better to have seen it than to just have read about it,” he said. “I could have a staffer brief me on it and I could learn something from the briefing, but the difference between walking out for even an hour and talking to the people here and a brief is just night and day. As we are trying to advocate for more state funding, coming and seeing makes a difference.”
— Contact Matt Welch at
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