DPU Fleet Vehicles Change Over to Richmond Gas Works

The decals identifying vehicles in the Customer Service, Gas Distribution, Energy Services, and Tech Services fleets were rebranded as Richmond Gas Works in August 2018.

There are approximately 160 vehicles of 37 different makes and models and a team from each division worked, along with the decal vendor, to complete an average of 60 vehicles each week.

Planning, coordinating and scheduling the vehicles, along with the staff to transfer them was a complex job. Designing the decals for such a varied fleet was complex with so much variation between makes, models and years of vehicles.

“That was a challenge to take all the differences into consideration when designing so we could produce the minimum number of decal style variations that would work,” said Janie Kaplan, marketing manager for Energy Services.

“We wanted a modern look that doesn’t feel stodgy but also wanted to signal the strength and stability that comes from our rich heritage. The vehicles are day-to-day moving billboards out in the community. It’s a clean, modern, agile, accessible look and each decal includes the customer service phone number and website to reinforce our accessibility and ease of use.”

More Storm Drain Art Arrives in Carytown

More storm drain art is coming to Richmond’s streets to remind everyone that they are the pollution solution. The first drain was painted as a live demonstration during the Festival of the River on June 9 at 7th and Tredegar Streets near West Rock. Four additional drains will be painted in Carytown on June 16 and 17.

Through the RVAH2O Storm Drain Art Project (http://www.rvah2o.org/storm-drain-art/), an initiative of the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (DPU), five local Richmond artists have been selected to paint their message on storm drains to educate the public about the importance of keeping our river, waterways and streets pollution-free. These winning artists were among 29 entries in RVAH2O’s online contest. They will paint five storm drains in Tredegar and Carytown.

RVAH2O’s online contest invited local artists ages 18+ to submit design entries depicting “You Are the Pollution Solution," environmental protection of waterways, and the James River’s ecosystem, natural habitats and wildlife.

The panel of judges included members of the Richmond Public Art Commission and members of the DPU stormwater team. The five winning artists are:

• Jered Fykes
• Hope Morgan
• Elise Neuscheler
• Melissa Rosener
• Amy Smith

“The Storm Drain Art Project drew a strong caliber of local artists who have taken a clever approach to illustrating the benefits of a pollution-free James River,” said Calvin Farr, DPU director. “We are excited to be a part of the Festival of the River with the live painting demonstration and returning to where it all began. We’re equally excited to be extending storm drain art to Carytown, a very popular and walkable destination to eat, shop, and play.”

Each artist will be assigned a storm drain to paint over two weekends: June 9 and June 16-17. Artists will be compensated with a $400 stipend for their work and materials, such as tools and brushes. They also will receive instruction on how to paint storm drains, which will include precautions to prevent paint from getting into the drain.

DPU will provide each artist with non-slip paint, basic brushes and water tubs. DPU also will closely monitor the drain painting and will provide standard construction inlet protection (gutter buddies) for each drain, as well as small tents that the artists can use for shade and protection during the process.

This is the third consecutive year of the RVAH2O Storm Drain Art Project, initiated in 2016 using the online contest and entry portal. In May 2016, six artists were selected to paint storm drains along Tredegar Street, adjacent to the James River. They remain today a visual reminder of the importance of the James River in our lives, as well as the lives of plants, animals and fish that rely on the river and its natural habitats for survival.  In May 2017, four artists were selected to paint storm drains along Grace and Harrison Streets at VCU.



About RVAH2O

RVAH2O (http://www.rvah2o.org/) is driven by the belief that every citizen of our city can make a difference and help us achieve the goal of cleaner water faster for all of Richmond. We’ve developed an innovative partnership between city government and passionate citizens, and we’re making progress every day to:

• Reduce pollution
• Decrease flooding 
• Keep our waters fishable and swimmable

Richmond's Award-Winning Water Highlighted During National Drinking Water Week

The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (DPU) celebrated National Drinking Water

Week, May 6–12, 2018. “Protect the Source” was the theme for this year’s campaign and provides the opportunity for partners of the American Water Works Association to highlight the vital role water plays in our daily lives and the quality of life we enjoy.

During National Drinking Water Week, representatives from DPU served Richmond’s award-winning water at various water fill stations in the city.

The City of Richmond is one of Virginia’s largest potable water producers, with a Water Plant that has the capacity to treat up to 132 million gallons of water a day from the James River.

The treatment plant and distribution system of water mains, pumping stations and storage facilities provide water to more than 62,000 customers in the city. The facility also provides water to the surrounding area through wholesale contracts with Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover counties and indirectly to Powhatan and Goochland counties. The utility also maintains 1,200 miles of water mains, city fire hydrants for fire protection and 13 pumping stations throughout the city.

A Day with the Strong Waste Program

The treatment of wastewater from restaurants, apartment buildings, commercial businesses, car washes, industrial plants, breweries, hair salons, printers, and similar businesses that have wastewater discharges different from the typical household is a significant expense for DPU, which can recover some of the costs associated with treating wastewater from industrial users through the Strong Waste Surcharge Program. The program measures concentrations of biochemical and oxygen demand, suspended solids, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus in annual random wastewater samples from these types of customers and adds surcharges to their utility bill. The tests involve visiting all those businesses at least once a year and taking samples over a 3-4 day period.

To view a slideshow, click on the first photo.

John Newton, environment tech, is back from collecting the day's first commercial and industrial wastewater samples as part of the Strong Waste Program.

Billing team members Carolyn Cunningham and Flora Edmonds watch Water Quality Technician Katie Dayley test some pretreatment samples.

Senior Chemist Miles Mangrum analyzes wastewater plant and industrial samples.

Senior Chemist Thomas May

Remove the manhole cover.

Pull out the previously placed sampler machine that has been collecting wastewater samples.

Read the calibrations and reset.

Harvest the wastewater samples.

Next we check out some drains behind a grocery store.

This one is separating out the grease.

More grease.

A lot of toilet paper in this one. The hose goes in to collect a sample.

The sampler machine is brought up and emptied.

Thanks for the demonstrations on what you do, Mr. Newton!

Conserve Water

Did you know?

• Approximately 400 billion gallons of water are used in the United States per day

• American residents use about 100 gallons of water per day. At 50 gallons per day, residential Europeans use about half of the water that residential Americans use. And residents of sub-Saharan Africa use only 2-5 gallons per day

• The average faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. You can save up to four gallons of water every morning by turning off the faucet while you brush your teeth

• A running toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water per day

• At one drip per second, a faucet can leak 3,000 gallons per year

• Nearly one-half of the water used by Americans is used for thermoelectric power generation

That’s why we, as residents of Richmond, need to do our part to conserve water and energy.

City Receives Highest Fire Protection Classification

The Insurance Services Office (ISO) reclassified the City of Richmond Department of Fire and Emergency Services as an ISO Class 1, their highest awarded classification in February 2018.

Of the nearly 45,000 Public Fire Protection Districts in the United States, only 270 are ISO Class I and only seven are located in Virginia. This puts Richmond in the top 1 percent for fire protection in the nation.

ISO collects and evaluates information on municipal fire-protection efforts in communities throughout the United States. ISO then assigns a Public Protection Classification from 1 to 10. Class 1 represents superior property fire protection and Class 10 does not meet the minimum requirements of protection.

ISO evaluates a community's fire protection, emergency communications, municipal water supply system, and community risk reduction efforts. The city's fire hydrants are maintained by the Department of Public Utilities.

A community's investment in fire protection is a reliable predictor of future fire losses. Insurance companies use ISO classification information to help establish premiums for fire insurance. Communities with better protection generally are offered lower premiums.

Richmond Gas Works Breaks Record

Kent Foley monitors the demand for natural gas throughout Richmond and Henrico

On Sunday, January 7, 2018, the predicted low temperature was -3 degrees, but in Natural Gas Control Manager Kent Foley’s truck, the temperature gauge was reading -7.

He had two crews on standby that Sunday morning, ready to roll if the natural gas distribution system developed any safety issues. Back in the 1980s, before all the system improvements and replacements were made, if the predicted low for the day was 28 degrees, a crew had to go out at 4 a.m. to manually ensure there would be enough pressure in the valves. If the temperature was 24 degrees, they started at midnight.

Now, without the need for a crew to manually adjust the pressure, the automated system broke a new record, sending out 190,000 decatherms (dth). The previous record was in February 2015 with 183,000 dth.

(A decatherm is a unit of energy used to measure natural gas equal to 1 million BTUs [British Thermal Units]).

Foley, who has been on the job for 32 years, said, “A typical send-out on a cold day would have been 90,000.” If the record low temperature had been reached on a Monday instead of Sunday, the send-out would have been even greater because commercial demand increases on weekdays, and residential users use more natural gas earlier on weekday mornings than they do on weekends.

The increase in natural gas demand in January was a combination of low temperatures and more customers, brought on by DPU’s expansion into developing areas of Henrico County. Westgate is currently the biggest load station. A new station was recently built at Staples Mill and Hungary Road in Glen Allen, connected to the one at Woodman and Hungary roads.

“We’re always trying to get more gas to the West End,” Foley said. As the customer base expands there, and new commercial business is added on the Southside, expect more records to be broken.