Henrico residents and businesses suffering from low water pressure or no water at all should have at least some water by Tuesday afternoon, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said during a Tuesday press conference at the Fairfield Area Library.

Many residents in Eastern and Northern Henrico County have been without water since late Monday or early Tuesday as the the result of two unrelated events: the city of Richmond’s water treatment facility suffering a power outage Monday morning and a late-night water main break in Highland Springs Monday night.

County officials on Tuesday declared a local state of emergency in order to quickly access necessary resources, materials and equipment to assist residents and businesses, Vithoulkas said.

Much of Eastern and Northern Henrico receive water from the city of Richmond, so the city’s issue forced Henrico on Monday afternoon to disconnect all of those customers from the city’s water supply and connect them to Henrico’s supply instead. But pressurizing the county’s system sufficiently to pump water from Henrico’s Three Chopt Road water treatment facility all the way across the county was challenging, Vithoulkas said.

Then, the water main break in Highland Springs occurred, cutting off the water supply to many customers. Henrico Public Utilities officials have been working to fix that break and expect their work to be done later Tuesday afternoon, at which point all Henrico customers who are dealing with water issues should see the restoration of at least some service, Vithoulkas said.

“I want to emphasize that Henrico’s water is clean,” Vithoulkas said. “Our water is clean and safe to drink. If you are a customer of Henrico County Public Utilities and pay a county water bill, you do not have to boil your water.”

County makes free water available, establishes hotline

In the meantime, Henrico officials are making potable water available for free at the Eastern Henrico Government (3820 Nine Mile Road), the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center (1440 North Laburnum Avenue) and the Henrico Area Mental Health and Developmental Services East Center (3908 Nine Mile Road), though residents must bring their own containers within which to store the water.

Free bottled water also is available at the Eastern Henrico Government Center, with a limit of one case per family.

Anyone with a water-related question or concern should call Henrico County at (804) 501-4275, Option 2.

Henrico officials did not learn of the city’s water treatment facility’s power outage until early Monday afternoon, Vithoulkas said – several hours after it apparently occurred. The city issued a boil water advisory for all of its customers late Monday afternoon.

“There could have been better communication from the city,” Vithoulkas said, though he stopped short of casting blame on city officials. “We don’t know what they were dealing with, so I don’t want to be saying the city should have notified us quicker.”

Vithoulkas offered an apology to Henrico residents who have been impacted by the water issues.

“This is a fluid situation that we could not have anticipated,” he said. “We know that the winter storm and power outages have already made the lives of many of our residents very difficult. So I want to personally apologize for the additional suffering that this has caused to many of our residents.”

Henrico officials were able to provide water Monday to Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital, which sits on the Henrico side of the city-county line and had suffered a loss of water, Vithoulkas said. That was a critical issue, because VCU Medical Center already had lost water.

“We were really worried about losing two Level One hospitals in the region, because our EMS would have been put, and the whole regional EMS system, would have been put into a situation where you have someone who is hurt and you have nowhere to take them, or you have to take them really far,” Vithoulkas said.

Henrico officials also were able to help provide some water to VCU, he said, and they also have been working with Richmond International Airport to assist after the airport lost its water supply Tuesday. The county also has worked with nursing homes that were affected to ensure that they have the water they need, Vithoulkas said.