Henrico County could experience significant changes to its water supply as local leaders assess their response to a water outage in Richmond that affected the region for days and consider measures to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

A report on the county’s efforts, presented by the water firm AquaLaw PLC during a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, highlighted communication as a key issue in the crisis that lasted nearly a week in early January.

The report states Henrico’s response to the outage at Richmond’s water treatment plant, which occurred following a winter storm, was hindered by a lack of information and clarity regarding the severity of the outage and the progress made in restoring the plant.

“Richmond was managing a very difficult problem,” AquaLaw President Christopher Pomeroy said as he discussed the firm’s findings with supervisors. “But the effect on our end was that the reports proved simply to be optimistic, and they repeatedly raised false hopes that we’d have water back in time to avoid an outage in Henrico.”

AquaLaw’s report, along with a study into the county’s East End water supply by engineering firm Whitman, Requardt and Associates, were discussed and released during the two-hourlong meeting which coincided with the arrival of another winter storm in the region.

The report specifically noted communication issues between Henrico Public Utilities Director Bentley Chan and former Richmond DPU Director April Bingham, including Bingham texting updates to Chan’s office landline phone.

A statement from Jimmy Walker, interim press secretary for Mayor Danny Avula, emphasized the work done by Richmond during and after the crisis, including “regular communication with local, state and regional partners.”

Other issues noted in AquaLaw’s report included the difficulty of delivering large volumes of water from the county’s water treatment plant to its central and eastern areas when the plant wasn’t designed for the task.

Six options from a Whitman, Requardt and Associates’ study, covering short, mid and long-term solutions, could address the problem. The ideas discussed included improvements to the county’s pump station and pipelines, restoring well systems, and establishing a regional water treatment plant to reduce Henrico’s dependency on Richmond’s water supply.

The proposals shared varied in prices and timelines, with a new plant potentially costing over $1.2 billion and implementation taking over a decade. All come with drawbacks or challenges.

Henrico leaders, however, were clear they were interested in exploring new ways to supply water to the county.

 Tyrone Nelson
 

“I have a certain level of anxiety every time it snows that this will happen again, and it can’t happen again,” Varina Supervisor Tyrone Nelson said. “I think we need to do what’s best for Henrico County right now.”

A report for Richmond on the outage and its response is still in development.