Henrico officials: County water is safe, no need for boiling

Henrico citizens do not need to boil their water, after the county proactively disconnected from the city of Richmond's water supply after a power outage hit the city's reservoir system Monday.

That outage resulted in city officials issuing a boil water advisory for city residents. The city's water supply may not be fully functional again for 24 to 48 hours, according to city officials.

Most Henrico water customers already receive their water from the county's water treatment facility, but some portions of Central and Eastern Henrico typically are served by the city's supply.

But now all Henrico customers are being served with county water, since the county's facility was not impacted by the winter storm, Henrico officials said Monday evening. Customers may experience changes in water pressure because of the county’s re-routing of service.

“Henrico County wants to assure our customers that their water is safe to drink and use,” said Bentley P. Chan, director of the Department of Public Utilities. “We have sufficient capacity from our own water system to meet the needs of our residential and business customers for some time. We are working closely with the city and other partners to ensure that our region’s water needs are met and have offered our assistance to bring Richmond’s reservoir system back online as quickly as possible.”

Henrico’s public water system has about 100,000 customers.