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Prince William Water’s goal is to set fair and equitable rates and fees while providing clean, safe drinking water to its customers and protecting the environment. A key element of providing clean drinking water and protecting the environment is ensuring that Prince William Water’s infrastructure is maintained and in good working condition.  This requires a significant capital investment every year. The most recent factors impacting rate increases are capital replacement needs; the rising cost of construction; and increases in purchased water, purchased water reclamation services and other operating costs.  

Prince William Water purchases most of its drinking water from advanced water treatment plants owned and operated by Fairfax Water. Wholesale water rates charged by Fairfax Water have increased significantly over the past few years.  

Wastewater in western areas of Prince William County is treated at the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA) Water Reclamation Plant, and wastewater in the eastern areas of Prince William County is treated at the H.L. Mooney Advanced Water Reclamation Facility. Both facilities are among the most advanced water reclamation facilities in the country. Recently, wastewater treatment costs at both treatment plants have also increased considerably. 

In addition, Prince William Water sets rates so that we can properly maintain our infrastructure, meet or exceed environmental regulations, and continue delivering the quality and reliability our customers expect from us.

Prince William Water sets its rates based on a cost-of-service model.  An independent financial consultant, Stantec Consultants, Inc., conducted a rate study for Prince William Water and recommended an adjustment to the rates. Prince William Water’s Board of Directors has approved new rates and fees effective January 1, 2025.  For more information on how we set rates, visit our 'Water Rates Information' page.

Data center developers and operators use different cooling technology – water cooled or air cooled – based on several proprietary factors. The decision about which cooling technology is used is owner-determined and project-specific. 

As part of the Master Plan Addendum, Prince William Water explored the feasibility of a water re-use program for the Digital Gateway. While the study did not indicate that water re-use is viable for the Digital Gateway, this does not preclude considering water re-use for other projects.

No, Prince William Water has a strong and efficient planning process to monitor water capacity, use and timing of future demand to plan for purchasing additional water capacity. Prince William Water’s planning aligns with the Prince William County Comprehensive Plan and relevant land use policies. Additional purchased capacity must be timed in coordination with required infrastructure improvements for both Prince William Water and Fairfax Water, since purchasing additional capacity and delivering more drinking water may require infrastructure improvements.

In December 2022, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved a revised Comprehensive Plan that removed public sewer restrictions in the Rural Area. Prince William Water conducted a Master Plan Addendum, which indicated that demands required by the updated Comprehensive Plan, including the Digital Gateway, may require additional water supply capacity to be purchased in the future. As noted, Prince William Water has the ability to purchase additional capacity from Fairfax Water when needed.  

However, the absence of water and sewer infrastructure in any given part of Prince William County is not an impediment to development under Prince William Water’s “growth pays for growth” policy, which requires that infrastructure extensions be designed, constructed and paid for by development applicants to serve their development.  

Yes. Prince William Water can support development activity as envisioned in the Prince William County Comprehensive Plan, including the latest Comprehensive Plan update which included the Digital Gateway, with capacity currently owned by Prince William Water supplemented with the purchase of additional capacity when needed from Fairfax Water.  

As specific land use applications are submitted with the related water requirements, Prince William Water will continuously monitor and assess the availability of existing water supply and, if necessary, the required timing to purchase additional capacity from Fairfax Water. Any additional capacity from Fairfax Water would be withdrawn from the Potomac River and/or the Occoquan Reservoir. 

Prince William Water continually plans for water and sewer infrastructure improvements that are needed to support development activity.

Watch Chief Operations Officer Don Pannell address the topic in Episode 3 (11:13-13:30) of our Behind the Tap podcast.

"Kathy: In each episode, we ask a question that we're hearing from our customers. So, as our COO, I think this is one that that plays into your responsibilities. As Prince William County is planning future growth and development, that could be new residential communities, new businesses, data centers. We are hearing from customers the question, “is there enough water capacity to continue serving the community?”

Don: Yeah. Yeah. It's, you know water is precious and so we take it really seriously to make sure we're stewarding uh the water resources for Prince William County. So, we absolutely have heard those same concerns. The county has been experiencing more growth in recent years, has been advocating for more growth frankly in recent years. So, the short answer to the question, and I spend a lot of time talking to customers, HOAs, industry groups, other stakeholders. The shorter, short answer is yes. Prince William Water has sufficient water capacity to support the growth that's planned in Prince William County's land comprehensive plan. It's important to point out Prince William County makes land use decisions. Our job is to give them information about our ability to serve and then to support the decisions that the county makes. We've studied the county's comprehensive plan, in detail, and we have confidence that we have capacity now and out to the end of our planning horizon which is currently 2050, to support the growth that's planned in the Prince William County comprehensive plan. to give a little more detail about data centers, because data centers are an emotional issue, for a lot of reasons, and water and the availability of water gets pulled into that conversation. So we need to address it. Last year , 2025, data centers of all the water we sold about 4% of that water went to data centers. So, while data centers are a dominant part of a conversation, they're not a huge piece of our water portfolio. So, 4% of the water we sold went to data centers last year."

Prince William Water annually assesses water needs against the Prince William County Comprehensive Plan, ensuring supply meets demand through the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments (MWCOG) planning timeline (currently 2045). Prince William Water closely monitors new demand requirements and regularly discusses demands and timing with project applicants. Prince William Water staff reviews various development scenarios and requirements to assess the timing of necessary water supply capacity increases and any required infrastructure improvements.