Invitation to GFCA Membership Meeting,

May 13 at 7:00 p.m.,

at the Great Falls Grange

MEETING NOTICE: In accordance with the bylaws of the Great Falls Citizens Association (GFCA), the membership is invited to a membership meeting on Tuesday May 13, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. at the Great Falls Grange (9818 Georgetown Pike). 

During this meeting, the slate of candidates for the GFCA board (2025-2026) will be presented and there will be an opportunity to accept nominations from the floor. 

APPROVED SLATE OF CANDIDATES: On April 28, 2025, the Executive Board of the GFCA unanimously approved the following slate of candidates for GFCA Officers and Directors for 2025-2026.

GFCA EXECUTIVE BOARD APPROVED SLATE

President – Dennis Huber

Vice President – Winnie Frost

Treasurer – Henry Lippincott

Director – Meg Everett

Director – Lisa Schlecht

Director – Stella Koch

Director – Amy Stephan

Director – Ed Phillips

MEETING AGENDA:

• Welcome and meeting opening (Dennis Huber, GFCA President)

• Introduction of the slate and short remarks by the candidates

• Opportunity to accept nominations from the floor

• Adjournment

No RSVP is required; if you have comments or questions, please contact: nominations@gfca.org

UPDATE:  Fuel Spill Cleanup at Difficult Run

April 21, 2025

• Supervisor Bierman’s office hosted an on-line update call on April 21 regarding the Leigh Mill Road fuel spill. 

  •  Randy Chapman, site manager for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, reported that a Notice of Violation has been issued to the trucking company responsible for the spill.  After negotiations, the proposed resolution will be available for public review and comment. 

  •  Leigh Mill Road between the bridge over Difficult Run and Kelso Road has been closed for a week. The contractor working for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is excavating and analyzing soil next to the bridge abutment and along the sides of the road on the south side of the bridge.  

  •  The most contaminated soils are loaded into roll-off containers for treatment off-site.  Soil that is not significantly contaminated is stockpiled out of the flood plain for later sampling and disposition.  

  •  Excavation of soil is nearly complete. The final date for excavation cannot be predicted yet.  

  •  Oil booms across Difficult Run are no longer catching any fuel. 

  •  Next Update call will be Monday, May 12 at 1:00pm. Due to additional work related to soil excavation and road repair work, the Department of Environmental Quality approved a one-week delay for the delivery of the Initial Abatement Report therefore the next follow up meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 12 at 1:00pm. The link and phone will be available on Supervisor Bierman's website homepage at: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dranesville/home    

  For additional information please reach out to the Virginia DEQ Environmental Manager, Randy Chapman at Randy.Chapman@deq.virginia.gov or 571-866-6517.

                              
  
  

                              

Tanker Truck Crash Leads to Fuel Spill into Difficult Run
April 4, 2025

On Thursday, April 3, 2025, at approximately 3:00 am, the driver of a tanker carrying hazardous material lost control of his vehicle on Leigh Mill Road at the one-lane bridge near Kelso Road. Fairfax County Police & Fire and Rescue responded.

The tanker was carrying diesel fuel and gasoline. Valves at the bottom of the truck were sheared on the bridge, rupturing one of the 4 fuel storage compartments. An estimated 2600 gallons of gasoline leaked onto the bridge and into Difficult Run.

Responders deployed hard and soft booms into Difficult Run to contain the spill. Washington Aqueduct crews also deployed booms at the water intake above Little Falls of the Potomac River to protect the regional water supply. 

Clean up crews from the VA Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and a cleanup contractor will continue to work in the area throughout the weekend. As of noon on Friday, about half of the fuel has been recovered. A geologist is onsite evaluating the impact. Residents in the area may smell gas until the cleanup is completed.

This location has been the site of three tractor-trailer accidents in the past two years.

Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department held a meeting on April 4 at 1 pm to update area residents. Follow ups are planned. 

The GFCA Transportation (TRN) Committee will be meeting tomorrow, April 5 at 3 pm to discuss this incident and the path forward. The Environment & Parks (EP) Commitee will also be briefing this topic at their monthly committee meeting at 7 pm on Monday, April 7. Please contact transportation@gfca.org and environment@gfca.org for the meeting dial in information.

Where are your kids going to School.  
Make your voices heard.

You have less than two weeks to let Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) know what is important to your family as they plan to unveil “draft” school boundary change options on May 5, 2025, to the Boundary Review Advisory Committee (BRAC).  We have not seen these options, but they are coming soon.

At the last BRAC meeting, April 11, in order to fix the Spring Hill Elementary School – McLean High School “attendance island,” a presented option is realigning some students to attend Langley HS. Langley HS attendance would grow to by 201 students or 102% of its capacity. At the BRAC meeting on April 25, they presented options to fix “split feeder” schools. This could also lead to more students realigned to Langley HS. In turn, this could put pressure to move students living in western Great Falls to Herndon HS.

FCPS has an on-line portal where you can submit questions, comments, concerns, etc. You have an option to submit comments with your contact information or anonymously. Tell them what is important to your family. For example, your student(s) would rather participate in a challenging academic environment at a nationally ranked High School even if it is slightly crowded or has a long bus commute. Link to submit comments to FCPS Boundary Review Portal. You can submit more than one question or comment. Make your voice heard!

TRN Breaking News: Leigh Mill

On April 29th, Supervisor Bierman contacted GFCA to tell us that the Virginia Department3 of Transportation (VDOT) has agreed to limit the size of trucks allowed to travel on Leigh Mill Road to forty feet in length. This is very welcome news to all who regularly drive on Leigh Mill Road. There are four ninety degree turns on this very narrow historic road and the safety of drivers and the one lane bridge have often been compromised by long tractor trailer trucks using this route.

The morning of the recent tank truck accident at the Leigh Mill bridge, GFCA contacted Supervisor Bierman’s office to request that he schedule a meeting for GFCA with VDOT to request this restriction. He immediately set that in motion. He also requested that Senator5 Boysko and Delegate Sullivan attend the meeting. After some scheduling delays, Supervisor Bierman received notice today (April 29, 2025) that the meeting was no longer necessary because they have agreed to his request. 

The following is from the email confirmation sent to Supervisor Bierman:

 “As you noted in the original email below, the primary reason for the meeting was to discuss the concerns with truck use and the potential to restrict large trucks from Leigh Mill Road.  After the incident on April 3, VDOT began an investigation of the site, and we have determined that a restriction on trucks over 40 feet in length is appropriate at this location.  The restriction will be implemented in the field once the signs are fabricated and sign placement has been scheduled.  We expect that the sign fabrication will take approximately 90 days, and placement will occur this summer."

Thank you Supervisor Bierman!

New Unified Sanitation Districts 

Transforming Residential Waste Collection

The Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) has been conducting a marketing campaign about Unified Sanitation Districts. They have published a website covering frequently asked questions that seems to be regularly updated with new information. 

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/recycling-trash/unified-sanitation-districts 

Matt Adams, lead on the project, spoke again about the program on the EnviroPod podcast. He noted that working out all of the details of the Unified Sanitation Districts (including the district boundaries, services, and contract models) will likely take the full 5-year period. They are deferring some of the detailed analysis until the county decides to move forward with this model, which is planned to be voted on by the Board of Supervisors, after the June 24 public hearing. 

The public hearing will be at the Fairfax Government Center Board Auditorium, located at 12000 Government Center Parkway on Tuesday, June 24. Instructions on ways to provide testimony in person, in writing, by phone or by video is available at: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/clerkservices/ways-provide-public-hearing-testimony

DPWES is also encouraging anyone with comments to submit input to USDfeedback@publicinput.com. The website states that DPWES will review the input and share all feedback with the Board of Supervisors prior to the June public hearing. 

PLEASE NOTE: On June 9, the Environment and Parks Committee will present a zoom program all about the Unified Sanitation Districts with Matthew Adams, DPWES lead on the waste collection initiative. Please message environment@gfca.org for the zoom link.