Broken pipe may have been have leaking sewage before James River swim advisory

RICHMOND, Va. -- The most up-to-date readings of the James River, shared by the James River Association, show high levels of E. Coli concentration from the 14 ^th Street takeout steps to Rockett's Landing.

The readings were taken Thursday July 18, before rain came to the River City over the weekend. The public will likely not get an updated reading from the James River Association until Friday, as team members normally test the water on Thursdays before the river sees a high volume of visitors on weekends.

The high level of E. Coli is likely linked to sewage leaking from a broken pipe, as well as an increase in sewage leakage from the city's combined sewer overflow system.

"We anticipate, unfortunately, high E. Coli levels when we have combined sewer overflow events after high precipitation," said Tom Dunlap, the James River Keeper with the James River Association. "But right now, we also have this dry weather release that's occurring at what appears to be a broken sanitary sewer pipe, that pipeline, which is causing high E. Coli readings outside of these rainfall events that would otherwise create these situations where our recreational community knows to avoid the river."

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Dunlap said the high E. Coli levels are not new.

“Data that we’ve gotten going back to the start of July has been elevated, suggesting that there are conditions present in the river that might be unsafe for swimming and other recreational activities where folks would be submerged based on VDH guidelines," Dunlap said.

It's a two-pronged problem that Dunlap says is hard to track.

Pictures shared with CBS 6 show the pipe leaking on July 14.

The Virginia Department of Health confirmed with CBS 6 it was first notified of the pipe leak on July 16, and an advisory was shared with the public the next day.

Matt Wagner

The advisory warned against recreational water activities like swimming, wading, tubing and whitewater kayaking where submersion is likely. The advisory extends from the Manchester Bridge (9 ^th Street) to Osborne Landing in Henrico County, approximately 12 miles of the James River.

Popular spots like Belle Isle and Pony Pasture are not included in the advisory.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported the leak started much earlier, on July 2. According to an article by the RTD, the city notified the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about the leak within 24 hours.

The DEQ responded saying the lag time between the time it was notified and when it then notified the health department was caused due to the national Crowdstrike outage.

CBS 6 reached out to Richmond's Department of Public Utilities and the Department of Environmental Quality to independently confirm the timeline and what may have caused a delay in notification. We have not received a response to our inquiry from either department at this time.

DPU told CBS 6 last week that the issue was caused by a malfunctioning pump that would divert sewer water from the failed pipe.

DPU installed inflatable plugs in the pipe to prevent sewage flow. A temporary patch will be put on the impacted area.

According to DPU, the pipe will be welded to isolate both ends on the pipe. That work is expected to start the first week of August 24.

“This is old infrastructure, and thankfully the City had been, prior to this event, diverting the sanitary sewer line away from that section of pipe that seems to be compromised, but that’s a temporary fix and we need long terms solutions, and those long-term solutions cost money and they take time unfortunately," Dunlap said.

Fixing the combined sewer overflow system, which may cause problems even after the pipe is fixed, could cost around $650 million.

“We’re doing everything we can, but I cannot tax Richmond’s residents into oblivion to fix this problem," Mayor Stoney said Tuesday. "We’re going to need the Commonwealth to step up. It’s my hope that we can see future dollars. I know Governor Youngkin has tried to meet the moment, but we haven’t quite got there yet. So we need more help from the state to find a solution to this problem, this combined sewer overflow.”

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