Upgrading Alexandria’s sewer treatment plant will cost millions, but not upgrading the plant could cost more, sanitation authority officials warned this week.

Alexandria’s 33-acre treatment plant must expand to meet new water quality regulations that will take effect in 2011, according to sanitation authority officials. Not complying with those limits carries the possibility of a $32,500 fine per day, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Unless the plant expands, it can’t meet new limits on the amount of nitrogen it can discharge into the Potomac with its treated water, according to a memo of justification the authority provided Alexandria’s planning commission this week.

“We know there is no solution that fits on our site,” General Manager Karen Pallansch said. “We are finding no technological solutions, and we have a deadline of 2011.”

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A $356 million upgrade to the plant completed in 2006 completely built out the authority’s property, Pallansch said. The upgrade was a response to regulations implemented in the mid-1990s, Pallansch said.

Since 60 percent of the plant’s capacity is allocated to Fairfax County residents, they covered 60 percent of the cost, leaving a $130 million debt Alexandria residents are paying through rate fees, Pallansch told The Examiner. Any new expansion would be covered the same way, she said.

The authority is trying to purchase an adjacent 10-acre property through eminent domain seizure. It is the only neighboring site that is suitable, Pallansch said. Otherwise, the plant is surrounded by parcels that are too small or already developed.

The property owners, Charles Hooff and John Fagelson, are fighting the seizure. The authority is offering $20.4 million, less than half of what the owners maintain the land is worth. The property is also part of one of the city’s neighborhood development plans, zoned for office and residential development.

The authority needs to add a series of pump stations and more treatment buildings, Pallansch said. Additional regulations require the addition of a temporary holding facility for the fertilizer it produces and ships to southern Virginia fields. The plant’s power supplier has also advised adding a generator for a backup power supply — requiring another half-acre of land.

mhegstad@dcexaminer.com