Sewage spill

Prompt action by the Sheriff's Office, Fire-Rescue and the Department of Public Utilities after a July sewer pipe rupture closed River Road west of the Tuckahoe Creek bridge.

On July 27, a Goochland force main—pressurized sewer line—ruptured releasing approximately 300,000 gallons of raw untreated sewage into Tuckahoe Creek near River Road west of the Henrico County Line.

The force main is part of the Tuckahoe Creek Service District (TCSD) infrastructure. It runs from a pump station on the north side of Rt. 6, roughly opposite the entrance to the Rivergate community, through Country Club of Virginia golf courses eventually connecting to the City of Richmond wastewater system on Maple Avenue near St. Catherine’s School.

At the August 3 board of supervisors’ meeting Board Chair John Lumpkins, Jr., District 3 said that the break occurred at approximately 7:30 p.m. The county department of public utilities, fire-rescue, and the sheriff’s office responded immediately. River Road was closed to through traffic and the line shut down to prevent additional spillage. Lumpkins said that a utility contractor was hired to repair the damage, and an environmental contractor retained to remove and dispose of sewage collected behind a containment berm.

According to Goochland Director of Public Utilities Matt Longshore, the cause of the rupture is believed to have been improper installation of fiber reinforced pipe (FRP) during construction of the TCSD trunk lines around 2004. A similar breach occurred in the vicinity in December of 2008.

Longshore explained that the quantity of spillage—approximately 300,000 gallons—was calculated using construction drawings “for the pipeline (length, diameter, elevation head conditions) along with the operational set points in the pump station controls.” The county has a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system in place that provides off site operational capability.

Longshore said that the SCADA system allowed DPU to shut down the force main remotely as soon as the problem was reported. “That pipeline holds just over 4.3 million gallons of sewage at any given time, so the remote-control capabilities of the SCADA system played a key role in helping to limit the quantity of sewage spilled.”

As of August 12, the county, according to Longshore, had not received an invoice for clean-up costs from the outside contractor. The county is insured by VACORP. A claim has been filed.

Longshore was not aware of any pending action by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for the impact of the spill on the James River.

The TCSD was created in 2002 to provide public utilities—water and sewer—to an area roughly bounded on the east by the Henrico County line, the north by the Hanover County line, the south by Rt. 6 and the west by Hockett and Manakin Roads. Created to attract commercial development in Goochland, the TCSD was financed with a peculiar issuance of bonds for $65 million through the Virginia Resource Authority. Service of this debt was predicated on the levy of an ad valorem tax on landowners in the TCSD in addition to the county’s real estate tax. The ad valorem tax rate is currently 32 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

Construction of the TCSD trunk lines did not go smoothly. Cost overruns, delays, and lawsuits haunted the project. When it began operation, no provision was made for routine maintenance or upgrades in connection fees and user rates.

Litigation between the county and the owners of the West Creek business park hobbled investment in West Creek, which, powered by TCSD utilities, had been touted as an economic engine for county revenue. Even before the 2008 collapse of financial markets, growth in the TCSD, which had been forecast in double digits, was negligible, which made debt service more burdensome to the county.

Since 2012, when a mostly new board of supervisors took office, the TCSD has blossomed. New businesses including medical office buildings, the Sheltering Arms/VCU rehabilitation hospital, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, and Greenswell Growers have taken root there. Residential enclaves, including apartments in West Creek, have added customers to the TCSD and increased the tax base. Refinancing of the bonds got the debt under control.

A thorough review of the TCSD infrastructure resulted in a long-term utilities master plan and implementation of a rate structure that funds planned repairs, upgrades, and contingencies for unexpected incidents like the July 27 spill.

For more information on the TCSD go to https://www.goochlandva.us/Faq.aspx?TID=41,