Firms reviewed issues related to early January outage, county’s response
The Henrico Board of Supervisors this morning will receive reports from firms hired to conduct independent reviews of the county’s response and related issues associated with widespread water-service outages that occurred in early January when the city of Richmond’s water treatment facility lost power and flooded.
The Board will meet with the firms in a 10 a.m. work session, which will be available via livestream. The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Henrico County Government Center, 4301 E. Parham Road. The reports will be available at henrico.gov/water-outage/ shortly after the meeting starts.
AquaLaw examined the timeline of events associated with the onset of mechanical problems at Richmond’s water treatment facility and the county’s response throughout the crisis. Whitman, Requardt & Associates LLP reviewed the county’s east end water supply and outlined potential short-, medium- and long-term options for meeting the area’s water-service demands with greater independence from the city’s system.
At its peak, the water-service outage impacted about 24,000 customers primarily in eastern Henrico. The problems led to a countywide boil water advisory that was in effect from Jan. 8-11. Henrico has about 100,000 water customers. Customers in the eastern area are served mainly by Richmond’s water treatment plant. Customers in the western and northern areas are served by Henrico’s Water Treatment Facility. Henrico purchases water from Richmond under a 1994 contract that’s in effect through 2040. For more information, visit henrico.gov/water-outage/.
