Water bearer: McClellan presents checks to Petersburg, Colonial Heights for line upgrades

PETERSBURG – The city’s aging water infrastructure got a much-needed cash infusion Wednesday, courtesy of Congress.

Rep. Jennifer McClellan brought what she called “hopefully the first check and not the last” to the Petersburg Public Library. It totaled $959,752 and will cover ongoing improvements to the Poor Creek pumping station in southern Petersburg.

“Clean drinking water is really important for everybody, and we know that a lot of our cities have very old water infrastructure that needs replacement,” McClellan, D-Virginia, said. “They don’t have the funds to do it, so this funding allows them to move forward with the project.”

The timing of the presentation could not have been more apropos as Petersburg just came off a major line break in the Halifax Street area that took four days to repair. The break was blamed on the age of Petersburg’s water network, which is as much as 100 years old or more, and city officials have said those problems would have been mitigated if improvements such as Poor Creek had been online earlier.

Poor Creek serves almost one-third of Petersburg’s water customers.

“Whether it’s water, broadband or road, there are so many infrastructure projects where our cities can’t do it all on their own,” McClellan said. “The federal government ... is really able to help invest in these core services.”

Funding for more improvements is currently on the stove in Washington, McClellan said. Additional rehab for Poor Creek and a reboot of the city’s long-suffering water metering system, each being $1.105 million, cleared the first of many House Appropriations Committee hurdles in the budgeting process for the next federal fiscal year.

“Fingers crossed,” McClellan said.

The Petersburg check presentation was the second on McClellan’s Wednesday calendar. Earlier that day, she gave the same amount to the city of Colonial Heights for its own water-line replacement project.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Water bearer: McClellan presents checks to Petersburg, Colonial Heights for line upgrades