Richmond’s water treatment plant beside the James River. (Image courtesy City of Richmond)
A spike in fluoride levels during a pump install at Richmond’s water treatment plant last week went unreported for days and has prompted neighboring counties to repeat calls for a cooperative approach to water service in the region.
In statements released late Monday afternoon, Henrico and Hanover counties said they were “discouraged” and “disappointed” by what Henrico called “repeated operations failures and communications breakdowns” associated with the plant, which the city said “experienced an issue” during an installation of a new fluoride pump that increased fluoride levels over several hours last Wednesday.
Chesterfield County also acknowledged the heightened fluoride level had reached its pipes, and all of the localities said the levels never got to a point that would have made water unsafe for consumption.
Fluoride is typically added to public water systems to prevent tooth decay but can cause cosmetic dental problems for children if levels are too high. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends a fluoride level of 0.7 milligrams per liter and requires notice of a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 4.0 mg/L.
“At no point did samples collected in the distribution system indicate the fluoridation level exceeded the MCL of 4.0 mg/L within the region,” the city said in its release. It said fluoride levels detected Monday were 1.6 mg/L at the system’s point of entry for Hanover, 1.19 for Henrico, 1.21 at the highest point in Chesterfield and 0.4-0.7 at the city plant.
Henrico and Hanover said they were not informed of the incident until Sunday evening – and not by the city, but first by the Virginia emergency management and health departments. The first notice from the city came about an hour later, Henrico said in its statement, referring as well to delayed reporting of a plant failure in January that resulted in a dayslong water outage across parts of the region.
“This episode, which comes on the heels of the city’s water service disruptions of January, shows once again that the region’s localities need to play a more prominent role in the delivery of drinking water to their customers,” Henrico’s statement said.
Added Hanover in its statement: “We are disappointed by the lack of timely communication from the City of Richmond, especially in light of the challenges faced during January’s water crisis. Hanover County remains committed to working with our regional partners to strengthen oversight of the water supply and to keeping our residents fully informed.”
Richmond’s release about the incident, which went out about an hour later than the counties’ Monday evening, acknowledged that plant staff did not notify state health officials of the incident as required.
“Although the Department of Public Utilities is currently in the process of creating new standard operating procedures for the Water Treatment Plant, plant staff did not notify the Virginia Department of Health within the required 24-hour period,” the city’s release said.
The release included comments from Mayor Danny Avula, who was quoted as saying that he was “disappointed with our failure to communicate.”
“This incident damages the work we’re doing to rebuild trust — not only with the residents of Richmond, but our communities, and our regional partners, including Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover. We must do better,” Avula said in the release.
A water tank outside HCA’s Chippenham Hospital during the water crisis January. (Courtesy HCA)
Since the water outage in January, Avula has met with county officials to discuss potential options for a more regional approach to providing and managing water service in metro Richmond. Henrico has proposed creating a regional water authority and partnering with the city to repair or replace the aging city plant, but no formal decisions or announcements have been made.
Earlier this month, the state health department released its final report on the January outage and issued a violation notice that requires the city to implement a corrective action plan. The state’s investigation, like others before it, found that operational and procedural failures at the plant contributed to the outage, which the report said was “completely avoidable.”
An announcement from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office said the state would work with Richmond to implement the action plan to make sure such a failure never happens again. In their statements on Monday, Henrico and Hanover reiterated a desire to work with the city as well.
“Henrico stands ready to partner with the city as well as Chesterfield and Hanover counties to ensure that the entire community has access to drinking water that’s reliable, safe and of the highest quality,” the county’s statement said.
Richmond’s water treatment plant beside the James River. (Image courtesy City of Richmond)
A spike in fluoride levels during a pump install at Richmond’s water treatment plant last week went unreported for days and has prompted neighboring counties to repeat calls for a cooperative approach to water service in the region.
In statements released late Monday afternoon, Henrico and Hanover counties said they were “discouraged” and “disappointed” by what Henrico called “repeated operations failures and communications breakdowns” associated with the plant, which the city said “experienced an issue” during an installation of a new fluoride pump that increased fluoride levels over several hours last Wednesday.
Chesterfield County also acknowledged the heightened fluoride level had reached its pipes, and all of the localities said the levels never got to a point that would have made water unsafe for consumption.
Fluoride is typically added to public water systems to prevent tooth decay but can cause cosmetic dental problems for children if levels are too high. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends a fluoride level of 0.7 milligrams per liter and requires notice of a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 4.0 mg/L.
“At no point did samples collected in the distribution system indicate the fluoridation level exceeded the MCL of 4.0 mg/L within the region,” the city said in its release. It said fluoride levels detected Monday were 1.6 mg/L at the system’s point of entry for Hanover, 1.19 for Henrico, 1.21 at the highest point in Chesterfield and 0.4-0.7 at the city plant.
Henrico and Hanover said they were not informed of the incident until Sunday evening – and not by the city, but first by the Virginia emergency management and health departments. The first notice from the city came about an hour later, Henrico said in its statement, referring as well to delayed reporting of a plant failure in January that resulted in a dayslong water outage across parts of the region.
“This episode, which comes on the heels of the city’s water service disruptions of January, shows once again that the region’s localities need to play a more prominent role in the delivery of drinking water to their customers,” Henrico’s statement said.
Added Hanover in its statement: “We are disappointed by the lack of timely communication from the City of Richmond, especially in light of the challenges faced during January’s water crisis. Hanover County remains committed to working with our regional partners to strengthen oversight of the water supply and to keeping our residents fully informed.”
Richmond’s release about the incident, which went out about an hour later than the counties’ Monday evening, acknowledged that plant staff did not notify state health officials of the incident as required.
“Although the Department of Public Utilities is currently in the process of creating new standard operating procedures for the Water Treatment Plant, plant staff did not notify the Virginia Department of Health within the required 24-hour period,” the city’s release said.
The release included comments from Mayor Danny Avula, who was quoted as saying that he was “disappointed with our failure to communicate.”
“This incident damages the work we’re doing to rebuild trust — not only with the residents of Richmond, but our communities, and our regional partners, including Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover. We must do better,” Avula said in the release.
A water tank outside HCA’s Chippenham Hospital during the water crisis January. (Courtesy HCA)
Since the water outage in January, Avula has met with county officials to discuss potential options for a more regional approach to providing and managing water service in metro Richmond. Henrico has proposed creating a regional water authority and partnering with the city to repair or replace the aging city plant, but no formal decisions or announcements have been made.
Earlier this month, the state health department released its final report on the January outage and issued a violation notice that requires the city to implement a corrective action plan. The state’s investigation, like others before it, found that operational and procedural failures at the plant contributed to the outage, which the report said was “completely avoidable.”
An announcement from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office said the state would work with Richmond to implement the action plan to make sure such a failure never happens again. In their statements on Monday, Henrico and Hanover reiterated a desire to work with the city as well.
“Henrico stands ready to partner with the city as well as Chesterfield and Hanover counties to ensure that the entire community has access to drinking water that’s reliable, safe and of the highest quality,” the county’s statement said.
“Although the Department of Public Utilities is currently in the process of creating new standard operating procedures for the Water Treatment Plant, plant staff did not notify the Virginia Department of Health within the required 24-hour period,” the city’s release said. The release included comments from Mayor Danny Avula, who was quoted as saying that he was “disappointed with our failure to communicate.” Perhaps they’re the same functionaries making $300! $200K! and working 7 days a week. One might be tempted to say, “wait until Bobby Jr. finds out’, but he’ll just put this in the core constituent’s empty-promises memory… Read more »
If you do not have a high quality water filter at home, this is your sign.
Henrico needs to have its own water treatment plant for the East End. Richmond is an unreliable partner. I am surprised that everyone in Henrico leadership does not realize this fact. I moved my business from Richmond to Henrico because Richmond is so poorly run.
Regardless of your feelings on the city, the region must work together on a water solution. Otherwise we will be fighting over who gets water whenever we have our next major drought. With a regional authority we’d have the joint ownership in place to handle any issues.
In other City news the Revenue Manager brought on Stoney (and kept by Avula), praised for her work ethic who was hired just 7 MONTHS ago, resigned after the city again “failed” to communicate the full severity of the problems and still has not reissued checks related to the RE tax rebates. Yeah CAO and deputies want to stand up and lecture taxpayers on progress and the need for better pay for those in senior leadership.
As unfortunate as this is, what’s really deplorable is the fact that a first order of business in revamping how the water plant is run was not communications. Sh*t happens, all the time. But lingering doubt hangs over the operation because there’s no urgency to pick up a phone. It begs the question of whether the same front-line manager(s) who had responsibility in January continue to work today. And whether they understand the expectations of the region. If the plant people acted appropriately, then who exactly was the roadblock to communication? And why wouldn’t that responsibility rest with front-line management… Read more »
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the surrounding county partners would be hyper sensitive to even the smallest of mis-steps by RVA DPU after the disastrous water outage this past January- It is way past time that the City of Richmond leadership move toward further development of regional control over not just water/water treatment but education, law enforcement and transportation matters as well. Our Mayor and Council members would better serve all the citizens of our City by seeking ways to lower the taxes now being levied against them by sharing the management of government and creating… Read more »
This fluoride spike in Richmond’s water system did not exceed the federal maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 4.0 mg/L but still triggered regional concern. I’ve created a rundown using Chat GPT for formatting of the potential health risks of excessive fluoride exposure, both acute and long-term: https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/2705.svg Short-Term Risks (especially with brief or moderate overexposure like this incident):Dental Fluorosis (mostly in children under 8)Caused by ingesting too much fluoride while teeth are developing.Results in white streaks, spots, or even brown stains and pitting on permanent teeth.Typically occurs with long-term overexposure >0.7 mg/L, but not necessarily at harmful MCL levels.Gastrointestinal Symptoms… Read more »