Henrico County officials are monitoring the ongoing restoration efforts at Richmond’s water treatment facility following reports last week that county residents were finding cloudy water coming from their faucets.
Bentley Chan, Henrico’s director of public utilities, told VPM News that crews have been flushing air from the system’s lines in order to restore water clarity in parts of Henrico.
“You may have heard from residents that they were still getting some cloudy water following the restoration of service from the city,” Chan said.” We're working to get new water moved into the system by flushing hydrants in areas where there were concerns.”
Chan said the county is working on contingency plans after a Jan. 6 power outage at Richmond’s Douglasdale treatment plant — and subsequent pump failure — caused a water outage that affected not just the city itself, but surrounding localities, for several days.
“We need to be very conscientious of what we need to do in the event that something like what happened before doesn't happen again, knock on wood,” Chan said.
Thousands of homes in Henrico are reliant on Richmond’s water supply, thanks in part to an agreement the two localities signed in September 1994. At the time of the agreement, Henrico was Richmond’s largest water customer, getting 90% of its supply from the city.
The joint resolution allowed Henrico to build its own water treatment facility on Three Chopt Road, but required the county to purchase a minimum of about 12 million gallons of water per day from the city until July 2040.
“We pay for it, we have to take it,” Chan said. “If we don't take it, we still have to pay.”
Chan said the water that comes from the city goes to the eastern part of Henrico, which was the first part of the county to be issued a boil water advisory during the regionwide water outage.
Henrico has since been able to fill its system of water tanks in eastern Henrico and stabilize water pressure in the area. County officials are working to prevent further emergencies from occurring.
County Manager John Vithoulkas confirmed during a Board of Supervisors meeting last week that Henrico will hire two outside engineering and water utility firms to evaluate the recent outage and make recommendations for improvements to the county’s existing infrastructure.
The reports by Whitman Requardt & Associates and AquaLaw “will be the first of many” follow-ups related to the water crisis, Vithoulkas said.
The county also plans to sharpen its response to future crises, according to Chan, by communicating with the public more promptly as staff continue to monitor what’s happening in Richmond.
“We're trying to make sure that we're getting communications out when we get them — whether that’s just a little information or if it's a lot of information,” Chan said. “We think the public should know.”