Report will offer various options for enhanced water supply to Eastern Henrico
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Henrico County will spend about $90,000 for an external report that will analyze the county’s response to this month’s water crisis and provide it with ideas about how to effectively provide its own water to Eastern Henrico in short-term, mid-term and longer-term scenarios. The county also will spend an as-yet-unknown amount for a second outside report related to the crisis.
The county will pay Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP $89,777 for its six-week effort, which will include proposals about how Henrico can increase water supply and distributions to the county’s Greater Eubank pressure zone, which serves Eastern Henrico. WRA will analyze ways in which the county can achieve those goals in short-term (less than six months), mid-term (six months to two years) and long-term (more than two years) timeframes, according to a Jan. 20 letter outlining the agreement.
When a winter storm and subsequent power outage and flooding knocked the City of Richmond’s water treatment plant offline for several days earlier this month, the Eastern and Northern Henrico customers whose water comes from the facility were without water, while customers in the West End and in some Northern Henrico locations continued to be served by the county’s water treatment facility on Three Chopt Road.
All Henrico customers endured a boil water advisory for several days, however, once the county could no longer guarantee that untreated water from the city hadn’t entered Henrico’s water system.
In addition to the WRA report, Henrico has contracted with Aqua Law for the provision of “counseling and representation with respect to water utility matters, including the immediate focus on the Richmond water crisis,” according to a letter of agreement between the two entities signed Jan. 15.
The agreement does not specific an exact cost but indicates that AquaLaw will bill Henrico for its services based upon how many hours its employees spend on the effort. It outlined nine hourly rates that the project might incur, ranging between $205 and $635 apiece.
In its report, WRA will outline all available options for each timeframe and the associated costs, likely development timelines and relative benefits of each option, company officials wrote in their agreement letter.
Short-term solutions could include system valving and pipeline improvements to maximum the existing water transmission system, according to the letter, as well as other potential improvements to the Henrico Water Treatment Facility in the West End that could allow it to better supply water to Eastern Henrico.
Potential mid-term upgrades would include ways to increase available water in Eastern Henrico “on an interim basis without significant regional transmission main improvements or major pump station upgrades,” according to the agreement. Those could include potential upgrades at the county’s existing pump stations; improvements at the county’s three existing wells that could be made to bring them back online; and consideration of a hydraulic model to identify intermediate pipeline improvements.
Long-term options would be only conceptual in nature and would include the extension of a regional water transmission main (something Henrico Public Utilities Director Bentley Chan told the Citizen earlier this month that the county already has been planning to do), construction of a new package plant, a new water treatment plant or the expansion of the existing well system, according to the agreement.
WRA officials estimated that the work would require 404 hours by its employees to complete. Henrico has an existing contract with the company, signed Feb. 26, 2024, for the provision of engineering services related to water and sewer services as needed. That agreement outlines the rates WRA will charge the county for the various services Henrico might require of it; it runs through May 31 and is renewable for two additional one-year terms.
WRA’s draft report is expected to be finalized by Feb. 4 and presented to the board of supervisors at its Feb. 11 meeting. At the same meeting, county officials also will present the findings of their internal review of the water crisis and Henrico’s response to it.
No timeframe for AquaLaw's services was provided in the agreement letter between the company and Henrico County.
The city also has hired two firms to review its water crisis it will pay HNTB $234,000 to investigate the series of events that led to its water treatment facility shutting down and its subsequent response to those events; and the Hagerty conflating firm an estimated $400,000 to review its communications efforts during the crisis and to assist with emergency planning and communications efforts in the future.
