'State of emergency' – Henrico officials express frustration as county residents are again affected by Richmond water system failures

Visibly frustrated Henrico officials addressed the public and media members Friday morning on the heels of yet another City of Richmond water system issue that is threatening the water supply for some Henrico residents.

On Thursday – the same day the city lifted its boil water advisory and announced that its water treatment facility was running again at full capacity – a major water main broke on Canal Street in Richmond, causing lower water pressure for the second time this week for some of the Eastern and Northern Henrico residents whose water comes from the city.

During a morning press conference at the former Best Products headquarters site at the Parham Road/I-95 interchange, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas termed the issue “a very serious situation for our water system” that “continues to represent a major challenge for our county and much of our region.”

The county opened its emergency operations center last night and will keep it open as long as needed, Vithoulkas said, to address the situation.

“We will treat this issue as a state of emergency for as long as needed,” he said, as workers using forklifts moved hundreds of cases of bottled water into position behind him. That water is being made available for free to county residents – one case per car – at the site, 1400 Best Products Plaza, from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily until the situation is resolved, he said.

Though water for all Henrico residents is safe to drink, some customers are experiencing low water pressure, so the county is urging all customers to limit their water usage to the extent possible. That will allow the county to refill water tanks in Eastern Henrico by routing water from its own water treatment facility in the West End, a process that officials hope will be complete sometime tomorrow – but not soon enough, Vithoulkas conceded.

“This is less than ideal,” he said.

The tanks can hold a 24- to 48-hour supply of water. They were at full capacity at the start of the week, but then that reserve water they held was needed to supply residents in Eastern and Northern Henrico after the county disconnected those regions from the city’s water system when Richmond’s water treatment facility experienced problems as the result of clogged filters.

As that reserve water was used, the county worked to backfill the water tanks with water from Henrico’s system, but that process takes time because the system wasn’t designed to route water from the West End to the county’s eastern and northern regions.

Once the tanks are again at capacity and the city is prepared to fix the broken water main, Henrico officials will again disconnect Eastern and Northern Henrico residents from the city's water system and serve them with the reserve water until the water main repairs are complete, Henrico Public Utilities Director Bentley Chan said.

The process of fixing the Canal Street water main “is a complex repair,” Vithoulkas said, adding that the county has offered public and private resources to the city to help repair it expeditiously.

“We recognize that this is inconvenient and frustrating,” Vithoulkas said. “It is frustrating when logistically we do not receive water, a basic service that the city must contractually provide. It is frustrating when we have to redeploy the fire service to cover our county through tankers. And it is frustrating because we cannot do the work that we are here to do for our residents when we are in crisis mode.”

But, Vithoulkas said, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and other city officials have been in constant communication with the county and are working to fix the latest problem.

Henrico now has had to address four water-related problems caused by the city since January; the two this week, as well as two earlier episodes:

• thousands of Henrico water customers were without water for several days in January following a flood at the Richmond water treatment facility that forced its shutdown;

• some Henrico customers received water with higher-than-intended levels of fluoride in late April, as the result of an error by the city that was not communicated promptly to Henrico;

“As the city’s largest water customer, our county, our residents in particular, deserve better than this,” said Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson. “We need changes that are substantial and to ensure a level of service that is consistent and world-class across our community, our region.”

Vithoulkas reiterated that the county is taking steps to ensure that its water treatment facility ultimately will be able to provide water for the entire county, but that process – which will involve placing larger water pipes across miles of the county and is expected to take at least five or more years – “cannot happen overnight,” he said.

As part of the capital budget it approved last month, the Henrico Board of Supervisors authorized the first phase of funding ($50 million) toward that $328-million effort, which is expected to be funded in equal amounts each year until the entire amount has been authorized.

Earlier this year, county officials floated the possibility of Henrico taking over the Richmond water treatment facility. Local officials also have discussed the possibility of establishing a regional water authority to address the system.

“You have a region that is willing and wants to find a solution, and I think the city is open to that,” Vithoulkas said. “We just need to get there, and we haven’t been able to get there because of the multitude of issues that have come either from the plant or now this water main break.”

For years, Richmond’s water treatment facility served all of Henrico County, but the county and city negotiated an agreement in 1994 that allowed Henrico to build its own plant in exchange for a commitment to purchase a minimum of about 12 million gallons of water per day from the city through July 1, 2040.

That agreement will remain in effect unless the county is successful in an attempt to break it with cause or negotiates an earlier end. To date, county officials have not publicly indicated that they are actively seeking to do either.

County residents who experience water issues or who have any concerns about their water service should contact Henrico Public Utilities at (804) 501-4275.