New Virginia law requires water emergency alerts within 2 hours
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
A new Virginia law will require waterworks operators to tell state officials of severe water emergencies within two hours of finding the problem.
Why it matters: The legislation was partly prompted by — you guessed it – the January crisis that had hundreds of thousands of residents in the Richmond area without running water for days.
Driving the news: The initial bill called for a six-hour heads up to the Virginia Department of Health, instead of the current 24 hours. Then Gov. Youngkin recommended tightening the window further.
- Last week, lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to adopt Youngkin's change, which goes into effect July 1.
The Virginia Department of Health declined to comment, saying they want to wait until their agency's final report on the crisis is released.
- Axios had asked about how realistic this notification timeframe is, how quickly waterworks operators usually flag VDH's Office of Drinking Water (ODW), and whether being notified of Richmond's crisis earlier would have helped.
Flashback: In a 10-page preliminary report in January, state health officials said, "The water crisis should never have happened and was completely avoidable."
- Among the findings: Richmond didn't tell VDH how bad the situation was until 2:30pm to 3pm — about nine hours after the power went out and equipment failed.
- The city's final report last month, however, showed that ODW director Dwayne Roadcap didn't begin fielding calls about whether Richmond lost water until after 3pm.
What's next: VDH's final report comes out later this month, agency spokesperson Logan Anderson tells Axios.