New Tysons Power Station Plans Suspended in Legal Limbo

Dominion Energy will have to wait another month at least before it can look at rebuilding its Tysons power station.

Approval of the station was deferred to June 25 at a Board of Supervisors meeting last week, the latest setback for the facility on Tyco Road in northern Tysons.

“The Dominion Power Station in Tysons will be deferred again,” Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said. “We are in the midst of some interesting legal discussions about who gets the right to decide what sort of stormwater management they do, which is an interesting discussion.”

Dominion Energy plans to rebuild the station but has faced repeated delays throughout the process as the county works through how Dominion’s designs will impact nearby traffic projects and neighbors.

The staff report on the project notes that the site, which is almost entirely covered with concrete, deviates from the full inch of stormwater infiltration required in the Tysons Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan.

“Opportunities for infiltration on this site are limited as infiltration is not practical within the fenced substation confines,” staff said in the report.

Smyth could not be reached for comment, but Dominion Energy spokesperson Charles Penn said delays to sort out the minutia of power stations are not unusual.

“From a regulatory standpoint, Dominion Energy’s projects almost always involve an intersection of federal, state and local laws and regulations,” Penn said. “In this instance, we are working with the county and certain state agencies to accurately confirm where the regulatory responsibility rests with respect to certain engineering details of the substation that will be reviewed after the special exception process is complete.”

Smyth also noted at the meeting that the June 25 meeting will be jam-packed with public hearings, to which Chairwoman Sharon Bulova advised her colleagues to bring sleeping bags.