Soon-to-open Grubbs Center educates residents on water sources, treatment

A new education center in Woodbridge tells the story of how Prince William County gets its water.

The Durward E. Grubbs Environmental Education Center will open this month. Located at the Edward Mooney Advanced Water Reclamation Facility off Rippon Boulevard, the new center is part lab space and part museum.

The goal: to show how the majority of Prince William County’s drinking water flows from the Potomac River to the tap, and back again.

A colorful exhibit greets visitors as they come into the Grubbs Center. Interactive displays, light-up maps, back-lit photographs, and life-size pipes show how the Prince William Service Authority treats water, sends it to customers, treats it again, and then sends it back to the Potomac River via a waterfall that empties into Neabsco Creek, a Potomac River tributary.

The Service Authority operates the Grubbs and Mooney centers and provides water service to 250,000 customers in Prince William.

A map on the wall shows the sources of drinking water for the county, to inlcude the Occoquan Reservoir in the eastern section of the county, wells in the west, as well as some water taken from Lake Manassas — which is the sole source of drinking water for Manassas City.

The exhibit hall is also lined with facts about the county’s water system. Did you know 35,000 valves are used in the system? They help water crews isolate a water leak or water main break making it easier to fix.

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Did you know the average person taking a shower uses 25 gallons of water? Did you know all sorts of things, to include cigarette butts, sponges, and plastic bottles are flushed down the toilet only to end up at the water reclamation site?

“We really want people to think of the water system as their own,” said Service Authority spokesman Keenan Howell.

About 24 million gallons of water per day is processed at the Mooney facility. The water must be tested daily, and that is what happens inside a new 6,200 square foot laboratory space inside the Grubbs Center.

Potable water is tested several times during the reclamation process. Lab Director Mary Eure and her team of 15 technicians donned in white lab coats work five days a week, and are constantly monitoring the amount of chlorine in the water, bacteria levels, E-coli, coliform, total phosphorus, and biochemical oxygen demand. All of the work is done behind glass so passersby may watch the lab technicians at work.

In the event of a street-level water main break in a neighborhood, the lab is called in to test the water the affected site. The tests ensure the water is safe to drink after the break has been repaired.

The Grubbs lab is designated as a commercial testing facility. In addition to testing water for its customers in Prince William County, other agencies and companies may also have the water tested here. Virginia-American Water, the company that provides water to homes and businesses in Dale City, is the Prince William Service Authority’s largest commercial testing client, said Eure.

Homeowners who have wells on their properties will be able to bring well-water samples to the center to have them tested for bacteria such as E-coli. It’s a service that has been offered in the past by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the samples were shipped to Virginia Tech for testing. Howell said having a facility to be able to test water locally could help cut down on the amount of turnaround time it takes to get well test results.

More than 5,000 water quality tests are performed in the lab each month. The new lab replaces an old 1,000 square foot lab at the Mooney facility. The old lab space will be converted into a new control room for the water reclamation plant.

Back in the education center, the halls will soon be filled with students from area schools. Teaching children and educators who take field trips to the Grubbs Center about how water comes to their homes is the priority mission.

The Grubbs Environmental Center was named in honor of Durward E. Grubbs, Jr., a founding member of the Service Authority’s Board of Directors. Grubbs spent 27 years on the Board, serving as chairman on multiple occasions.