Potability Tests, Striker Park, and a Potential Silver Lining
Cheers RVA!
Today will be cold, partly sunny with a high of 34 and wind gusts up to 10 mph. Snow is expected off and on in the evening, with a potential 1-3 inches of accumulation.
Untreated surfaces are likely to be slippery, so be safe out there!
The weekend is expected to be a tad warmer, with highs around 40, but with lows below 20 in the evenings.
the juice:
The City of Richmond announced the first tests for water potability from all nine zones were underway Thursday afternoon.
If the tests are negative a second round of testing will be conducted 16 hours later, and after two consecutive negative tests the boil water advisory is likely to be lifted.
The water crisis, which began Monday morning, was caused by a number of failures in the system.
Initially, a power outage knocked out one source of power supply to the city’s water plant.
When that happens, the system is supposed to automatically switch over to a secondary source of power.
However this did not occur, and so the system was relying on its UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system for 45 minutes until that battery ran out.
UPS systems are intended to maintain continuous power only for short periods of time.
It took another hour for the system to be manually switched over, during which time one of the IT systems that controls all operations failed.
This failure caused a lack of control of valves which in turn caused flooding, further damaging critical equipment.
Mayor Danny Avula has pledged to conduct a full action report on what exactly went wrong and make the findings available to the public.
the pulp:
The new school board was sworn in on Wednesday and unanimously chose 9th District member Shavonda Fernandez as council chair.
WTVR is reporting past inspections of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities cited deteriorating infrastructure and an outdated and not finalized emergency response plan.
A Water main broke on Staples Mill Rd Thursday night and is likely to impact traffic throughout the morning.
Striker Park is adding an office and storage building, as well as two-covered futsal courts and more parking as part of a $5.5 million expansion at it’s location on Pouncey Tract Rd, via Bizsense.
the dive:
Paul Goldman, a political strategist who served as chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia from 1990 - 1993, and most recently lost a bid for City Council in the 1st district, offers a blunt opinion for RVA Mag on the current water crisis and how there could be a silver lining for newly-elected Mayor Avula if he takes bold steps to properly address the city’s infrastructure:
The current water crisis presents Danny Avula with this moment. The folly of issuing $130 million in city general obligation baseball stadium bonds—when we have so many far more important infrastructure investment needs—is hopefully clear now. I had proposed a smarter way to do it. Stoney and Council refused. They saw their legacy as a Stadium after their failed Casino fiasco. So foolish.
Read the full editorial here.
the vibe:
I’ve been relatively fortunate with power and water, but the storm knocked out our internet for a few days. It’s nice to be back.
Have a fresh day RVA!
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