The Stafford County Board of Supervisors has authorized repair work to be done at two Stafford wastewater treatment plants, one located in the Aquia District, in the northern portion of the county, and the other at Little Fall Run Treatment plant in the George Washington District, near Fredericksburg.

Both plants have had issues with distressed concrete due to the stormwater sewage filtration systems that treat and sanitize sewer runoff. Two filtration systems at the Aquia plant and another at the Little Fall Run plant have issues with concrete distress which includes cracks in the concrete surface. 

The Aquia plant handles an average water flow of six million gallons per day while the Little Fall Run plant's average amount is three-and-a-half million gallons each day.

The county has retained the services of Denmark-based consultancy group Ramboll Engineering to design the repairs of the filtration systems which will address the issues of cracks, surface damage, and joint repairs. The company that will carry out the actual repair work, Wisconsin-based Creative Maintenance Solutions LLC, will be nearly $470,000 for their labor out of the County's Public Works Utilities Enterprise Fund.

Creative Maintenance will use an epoxy-based composite product that has been found to be successful at addressing issues of concrete repair. The composite is created by United Kingdom-based company Belzona and can withstand pressures of over 10,000 pounds per square inch.

Another company, the Nokesville-based Keystone Waterproofing & Restoration, was also in the running for the repair contract but was underbid by Creative Maintenance. Creative made a bid of nearly $469,000 while Keystone's was higher at $657,800.

The repair projects at the wastewater treatment plants are being planned to occur in a way that will limit any interruption to the operations of both plants.