Richmond, Henrico and Hanover lift boil water advisories
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A drone shot of a city that now has drinkable water again. Photo: Joe Sohm/Visions of America/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Richmond, Hanover and Henrico lifted their boil water advisories on Saturday afternoon.
Why it matters: That means the city has drinkable water for the first time in nearly five days. Parts of Hanover have gone three days without it. It's been four for Henrico.
Catch up quick: Before this could happen, the Virginia Department of Health had to test the water for bacteria after full pressure came back Thursday.
- For Richmond, the first test sample was done around 3pm that day and incubated for 24 hours to determine whether bacteria was detected.
- Officials confirmed it wasn't around 3pm Friday.
- The second test was already underway by 1pm Friday, per the city. By Saturday afternoon, VDH gave the all-clear that it's safe to drink from the tap again.
Zoom in: Henrico followed a similar pattern, just with different timestamps, and documented the process on X.
- And Mayor Avula said in a Saturday press briefing that the city plant functioned "the entire time" as intended through the snow event.
Pro tip: Locals should now flush their taps, per city guidance. Here's what VDH says on how to do it and what to do if the water is discolored.
What's next: With the advisories behind us, all eyes are on the investigations into how the water outage happened and whether it could've been prevented.
- Avula has already vowed to bring in an independent, third party for it, which could start as early as next week. A longer, more in-depth analysis could take 30 to 60 days, Avula said Saturday.
- Henrico manager John Vithoulkas on Saturday promised a separate independent investigation, too, beginning Monday.
- The county plans to review if the eastern portion of the county, which currently uses city water, could connect to county water in the future.
Between the lines: There will also be a state-level investigation via VDH, per Gov. Youngkin.
Flashback: The water crisis that left Richmond without running water for three days also began affecting Eastern Henrico and parts of Hanover on Tuesday.
- It's been seen as an indictment on the city's aging infrastructure, which Mayor Avula suggested contributed to the crisis earlier this week.
- For context, one of its plants is 100 years old.
- Plus, a 2022 federal audit cited Richmond with multiple violations that included aged filters, limited maintenance and crumbling pumps.
Yes, but: Department of Public Utilities director April Bingham said in a previous press conference that she can't say for certain, at this time, whether the old infrastructure and the water crisis are connected.
- Though Dwayne Roadcap, director of the Virginia Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water, told CBS6 "you shouldn't have this kind of problem" even with aged facilities.
- And on Friday, the Times-Dispatch reported that the city considered replacing the switchgear that failed during the Monday outage for at least eight years — but didn't.
- That failure ultimately led to the plant flooding and cutting off Richmond's water.
Karri Peifer contributed to this report
This is breaking news and will be updated