Alexandria, Virginia Water Outage Today

Alexandria water system at a glance

Federal records name City of Alexandria as the public water system for Alexandria, with about 159,200 people on its mains. Customers know it as Virginia American Water; the name on your bill is the one to call.

What feeds the taps in Alexandria

Alexandria does not collect its own raw water. City of Alexandria buys surface water from Fairfax County Water Authority and distributes it through its own mains. After treatment the water is held in 4 storage tanks and reservoirs and pushed uphill by 4 pump facilities; that storage is the buffer that keeps taps running for a few hours after a pump or main fails.

The outage angle. Because the water arrives from Fairfax County Water Authority, a break on that supplier's transmission main or a plant shutdown upstream can leave Alexandria without water even when the local pipes are sound. Watch the supplier's alerts as well as Virginia American Water.

What causes water outages and low pressure in Alexandria

These are the causes that match the record for Alexandria, listed roughly in order of how much they matter here.

• Freezing weather. Alexandria sees about 83 days a year with a low at or below 32°F, and 14 days at or below 20°F. The coldest morning in the 2015 through 2025 record came on February 20, 2015. The longest stretch with highs that never rose above freezing ran 12 days, ending January 7, 2018. Frozen service lines and meters cause single-address outages, while ground frost and thaw cycles crack older mains and produce the street-wide breaks.
• Older neighborhoods and pipe. 43.2% of occupied homes in Alexandria were built before 1970, against 35.5% nationally. Streets of that age tend to sit on cast iron and early steel mains that are near or past their design life, which is where most breaks start.
• Flooding and heavy rain. NOAA logged 51 flood, flash flood and heavy rain reports in Alexandria city from 2015 through 2026, and 8 days a year bring an inch of rain or more. High water can wash out the ground under buried pipe, flood pump stations and push treatment plants past their limits, which is why boil notices so often follow a flood.
• Long dry spells. The longest stretch without measurable rain since 2015 lasted 38 days, ending November 9, 2024. Dry soil shrinks and shifts around buried pipe, and breaks often cluster when the rain returns and the ground swells again.
• Digging and utility work. Street projects, fiber installation and excavation near buried pipe regularly cut mains in Alexandria with no warning, usually on a day with perfectly ordinary weather.
• Scheduled work, or a fault inside your own home. Utilities warn customers before a planned shutoff. If nothing was announced and the neighbors are fine, the cause is probably your shutoff valve, meter or pressure regulator.

Alexandria weather and water-main stress, 2015–2025

Main break season in Alexandria runs from late fall into early spring, with the coldest stretch around December through February.

A note on the numbers: they are modeled for the city center and averaged over eleven years, so they show how often Alexandria sees each kind of weather, not what any one thermometer read on a given day.

Boil water advisories and the federal violation record for Alexandria

Since 2015, EPA's record for City of Alexandria shows no health-based violations.

A boil water notice in Alexandria is a separate thing from a violation. Virginia American Water issues one when pressure falls low enough for contamination to enter the pipes, after a main break is repaired, or when a routine test comes back positive. The Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water oversees the process, and the notice stays until clean samples come back, usually a day or two after pressure returns.

Lead service lines and old plumbing in Alexandria

The most recent 90th-percentile lead result filed for City of Alexandria is 0 ppb (2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb, so that result is comfortably below it.

43.2% of occupied homes in Alexandria were built before 1970, and lead service lines and solder stayed legal until the federal ban in 1986. After any outage that disturbs the pipes, run the cold tap 30 seconds to 2 minutes before drinking, and ask Virginia American Water about its lead service line inventory.

How long a water outage lasts in Alexandria

Most repairs of an ordinary main break in Alexandria take half a day once the crew is on site. Bigger mains, deep bury and busy roads stretch that to a day or more.

Ask Virginia American Water for a restoration estimate when you report the outage; for large breaks it is normally posted and updated as the repair progresses.

How much water to keep on hand in Alexandria

Census figures put the typical Alexandria household at about 2.1 people. At one gallon per person per day that is 6 gallons for three days or 29 gallons for a two-week supply.

• 41.8% of homes are in buildings with 20 or more units. Upper floors lose pressure first, and rooftop tanks and booster pumps depend on building power.
• 57.9% of households rent. Tell your landlord or property manager about a leak or outage right away, since the shutoff valve may be theirs.
• Do not forget the water heater: the tank holds roughly 30 to 50 gallons you can drink after it is switched off and allowed to cool.
• If a planned shutoff or storm is coming, fill the tub and some buckets for flushing toilets and washing; keep drinking water in clean sealed containers.

Water systems near Alexandria, side by side

Water outage pages for nearby cities

Bowie, MD · Rockville, MD · Gaithersburg, MD · Baltimore, MD