Henrico County is the subject of a new federal lawsuit alleging the county has illegally released pollution from many points in its sanitary sewer system. The suit alleges, based on state data, that Henrico’s system has overflowed about 66 million gallons of untreated sewage into the James River and its tributaries since 2016.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, James River Association and Environmental Integrity Project are the three non-profits behind the suit. They say Henrico has been breaching federal law for decades - and that state efforts to regulate the county’s sanitary system have not addressed deep infrastructural problems.
“These problems are quite widespread across Henrico County,” said Jamie Brunkow, James Riverkeeper with JRA. He says the sanitary sewer is dated and decrepit in many places, resulting in sewage leaks all over the county, including into various James River tributaries.
“These waterways flow through our neighborhoods and backyards, and our communities deserve waterways that are safe for swimming and fishing,” Brunkow said.
The Henrico County Water Reclamation Facility, the county’s main processing site, is allowed to release limited amounts of pollutants in certain time frames under the federal Clean Water Act.
According to Department of Environmental Quality data cited in the lawsuit, which is based on events reported by the county, Henrico regularly exceeds state-permitted limits for nutrient, sediment and bacteria pollution.
All the pollutants have unique impacts: nutrients like nitrogen cause algal blooms that can choke out wildlife, sediments block the sun before it reaches river-bottom plants and sewage bacteria gets into wildlife that we eat and turns swimming, fishing and other river-based activities into risky behaviors.
Since 1993, the county has entered into four consent orders, which are basically agreements to tackle the pollution emissions, with DEQ. According to EIP attorney Sylvia Lam, it’s set to enter a new one — but she says the piecemeal approach has failed.
“Henrico should abide by legally binding milestones, including an ultimate end date to stop these pollution events,” Lam said. The suit would also require Henrico to post public notices of sewage releases.
Richmond, Alexandria and Lynchburg all have an end date identified for fixing the complex and expensive woes of their own systems. Those plans were certified by state lawmakers and are backed by state and federal funds.
Although taking that same route with Henrico is possible, and the groups filing the lawsuit are still open to it, CBF environmental justice attorney Taylor Lilley says the county has resisted. The current draft order between Henrico and DEQ does not designate an end date but adjusting that could be an option too — and a federal court could issue their own decree.
“We have several options available to us now as to how to proceed,” Lilley said.
As for an end date for actually fixing the system, Lilley said, “everyone’s hoping as soon as possible,” but it’s not clear when is reasonable.
Henrico County shared this statement with VPM News:
“Henrico County is dedicated to protecting the health of the public and is deeply committed to environmental stewardship in Central Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay. The county is reviewing this lawsuit and looks forward to a full presentation of the facts through the legal process.”
