City of Richmond and Regional Partners Monitoring River Levels

The City of Richmond is closely monitoring the river levels, along with our regional partners Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, and Powhatan counties, as part of the James River Regional Flow Management Plan. The dry weather and lack of significant rainfall in western Virginia in the fall of 2019 could have lead to a call for voluntary water conservation in the metro Richmond area.

The Richmond region is supplied with water by the James River basin, the largest watershed in the state. Water levels locally are affected when there are dry conditions and lack of rainfall within the drainage basin is issued asking all residents in the City of Richmond and surrounding counties to voluntarily reduce water usage.

Water conservation, though, should be an everyday practice for all residents and businesses. Conserving water is an important tool in reducing water demand. Water conservation tips can be found here http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/drinking-water/office-of-drinking-water/water-conservation-tips/.

Citizens Academy 2019 -- Second Week at the Wastewater Treatment Plant

To view as a slideshow, click on the first photo.

After hearing about stormwater management and the flood wall, we're ready to tour!

First stop is where all the garbage that is not sewerage is pulled out of the water...

....by several of these big combing machines

Just a sample of all the things in wastewater that are not biodegradable

We have to take several large containers of this to the landfill daily; and even throughout the night when it rains. Who flushed a Big Gulp cup? And also, flushable wipes do not flush. Put them in the trash can, not the toilet.

Outside the filtration building

Now the combed out water is ready to treat

Geese like to hang out at the Wastewater Treatment Plant, but this group is heading to Florida

We thought these were bats eating bugs and mosquitoes, but a Twitter follower said they're probably chimney swift birds.

Separating this stuff from the water

Night falls at the Wastewater Plant and class is dismissed!

Citizens Academy 2019 - First Week at the Operations Center

Click on first photo to view as slide show

DPU Director Calvin Farr welcomed the 2019 class

2019 Citizens Academy class

Deputy Director Wayne Lassiter gave the financial overview

Program and Operations Manager Larry Grant explained customer service 

Utilities Field Supervisor Rodney Munford explains meter reading process

Program and Operations Manager Mickel Johnson explains streetlight history and operations

Warehouse and Materials Supervisor Jeff Carter 

Streetlight display

Answering questions after the presentation

Tour of the SCADA room to learn how natural gas flow around the region is monitored

Meter reading questions were popular!

Filling out satisfaction surveys after the session

Boxed dinners!

More meter questions!

The Operations Center Atrium

Natural Gas Safety You Need to Know

Hazard Awareness and Prevention

The U.S. natural gas transmission and distribution system has the best safety record of any type of transportation system in the country. Natural gas is clean, convenient, and efficient, which makes it the popular energy choice.

Like all forms of energy, however, it must be handled properly. Despite an excellent safety record, a natural gas leak caused by damage to a pipeline may pose a hazard and has the potential to ignite. Richmond Gas Works works diligently to ensure pipeline safety through a variety of measures, including the one-call Miss Utility and Dig Safe programs, inspections, design and construction practices, workforce qualifications, public education, industry safety practices and government oversight, pipeline markers and facility mapping, natural gas leak surveys, and patrols of critical natural gas facilities.

Leak Response

A natural gas leak is usually recognized by the smell, sight, or sound.

Smell: Natural gas is colorless and odorless. Before it reaches you, a distinctive, pungent odor -- a rotten eggs smell -- is added so that you will recognize it quickly.

Sight: You may see a white cloud, mist, fog, or bubbles in standing water, or vegetation that appears to be dead or dying for no apparent reason.

Sound: You may hear an unusual noise like roaring, hissing or whistling.

What should you do if you suspect a leak? Protect life first. Go to a location where the smell is no longer present and call 911 or the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities at 646-4646.

Do not strike a match, use telephones, switch on or off appliances, lights or even a flashlight in the area where you smell natural gas. In very specific circumstances, those actions could produce sparks that might ignite and cause an explosion.


How to Get Additional Information

City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities -- 804-646-4646.

Web -- www.richmondgov.com/PublicUtilities/NaturalGasSafety.aspx

Call Before You Dig (Virginia) -- 811 or 800-552-7001

Web -- www.va811.com Office of Pipeline Safety -- www.ops.dot.gov

Fix a Leak 2019

During Fix a Leak Week 2019, our Running Toilet ran around town and was finally stopped on Friday by a customer who recognized it. To fix your running toilets, put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank, wait 10 minutes, and if the water in your toilet bowl changes color, it's time to replace the flapper in the tank. There are many helpful videos on YouTube that will show you how to do that yourself, and a tank kit is inexpensive at any home improvement store.

Also, check your faucets for any drips and replace the washers. Don't forget the faucets outside the house!

What You Need to Know About Cross Bores

First, know what a cross bore is. It is where underground utility lines cross over each other.

The reason you need to know this is sometimes in rare cases a natural gas pipeline might actually be run through a sewer pipe, and if a plumber unknowingly strikes a gas line while cutting through a sewer pipe for a repair, natural gas could enter the sewer system creating a very dangerous situation!

For this reason, it's very important that everyone digging call 811 to have all utility lines clearly marked.

Always assume there is a possibility of crossed lines. If a natural gas pipeline is hit:

• Leave the premises immediately
• Instruct others to leave right away and stay away
• Call 911

DO NOT

• Operate any electrical appliances in the area
• Operate any pipeline system equipment
• Turn on vehicles, appliances or lights
• Use anything that might create a spark, including a cell phone

What It Takes to be a Female DPU Engineer

Susan Hamilton attended a career fair when she was 13 and identified with a vendor there. “He looked like me. He was a civil engineer and built bridges.”

They talked about the requirements for becoming an engineer and he told her she could be “a trail blazer and a role model,” she remembers. There were bridges where she lived in California and she enjoyed math, so she decided to make bridge-building her career.

“That changed when I took a structures class later in school. My interests changed to soils and subsurface construction.”

The greatest obstacle for her was resuming her education after a long break. “I left school in my junior year to travel with my husband, who was in the Army, and I didn’t return to school for 11 years. Then I enrolled in civil engineering and had to retake calculus. I didn’t mind being older than some of the other students. There were other non-traditional students there.”

Her first job after graduation was as a water and sewer utility engineer. “I had a great boss and mentor who taught me what I needed to know to be successful. I now have confidence not to be afraid to ask about what I don’t know, and to share what I do know with others. My professional motto is ‘Leave a community, neighborhood, or project area in better condition than you found it.’”
 
Hamilton is operations manager for Sewer and Stormwater Capital Improvement Projects. 

Janice Bailey’s mother left school early to get married, so she told her children they were definitely finishing college. “I came from a family of teachers. My mother always said, ‘I don’t care how you do it as long as you do the best you can!’”

So she enrolled in Upward Bound, a federally funded educational program, and researched careers. “Engineering had math and science, which I loved. My grandfather was a home builder, including the family home where I was born. I decided to follow in my grandparents’ footsteps and major in engineering.”

She worked numerous side jobs unrelated to engineering, constantly looking for engineering internships. “It’s a competitive and diverse field,” she says, and school was more theory than application. She wanted the hands-on experience.
Finally, she got her start in a large engineering shop designing ship components. “My commute was an hour or longer each way, so I was thinking of trying home renovating, but then I started working in the utility field and that’s become my career.”

Bailey is operations manager for Enterprise Asset Management.

Rosemary Green’s father was an electrical engineer, and she also wanted a “solid career” where she would always be able to support herself.
 
“I was interested in what I could see and touch, understanding why a wall stood and did not fall, or how a roadway was constructed from different points and met accurately in the middle. I was considering architecture, but decided I wasn’t creative enough.”

Her older sister suggested she apply for college as a liberal arts major and then switch majors once she was accepted, so she did and immediately transferred to engineering.
 
“The classes were hard, so you had to plug away day by day. My first roommate was applying to veterinary school, so she was always studying, too.”
 
Green has 10 siblings, so helping with school expenses was another consideration. “I signed up for the co-op program which solidified that I was on the right career path. I really liked being around construction and people who were solving problems.”

Eager to start her career now, she was pleasantly surprised to find companies were eager to hire female engineers. “I was getting two or three interviews for every one that my male classmates were getting.

“I was given many opportunities, first in engineering and construction for power stations, then in field offices for power distribution groups. I hit the industry at the right time, following advances made by women before me and men who wanted to see women succeed in the field.”

Green is a deputy director and supervises water treatment and distribution, wastewater treatment, engineering services and capital improvement projects.

Amanda Bickel was always interested in how things worked and how they were built. Acquiring her civil engineering degree was her goal. “I was working full-time as a land surveyor and taking evening classes. As a woman and new to engineering, it was initially a challenge as I was not always taken seriously in this field and struggled to find positions where you can have an opinion in the decision-making process.”

Bickel has been with the city three years and is an engineer in gas distribution where she supports design, planning, construction, operation and maintenance.

Surani Olsen chose environmental engineering because she wanted to solve pollution problems. “Because of the visible environmental pollution around Indonesia where I grew up – emissions from buses, cars, and river pollution – I felt clean air, clean water and a clean living environment were our basic needs.”

Her biggest challenge was completing her undergraduate research project at the same time she was working as a tutor to pay for her tuition. Finding an entry level environmental engineering job was the next challenge, as well as passing the professional engineer licensing exams.

Olsen is a project management analyst in Stormwater.

Jennifer Hatchett enjoyed math in high school and loved solving complex problems. “My dad’s friend was an engineer in the wastewater industry and I got interested in engineering talking to him. I interned for him one summer during college.”

Engineering school was a challenge. “There were times I really thought, this is too hard!” she remembered. None of her friends were in engineering, so she had to stay focused. “I was with mostly males in school, which was sometimes daunting. And that was the same issue when I started working. There weren’t many women in the places I worked.”

Hatchett was a project and area manager for a global engineering company, before coming to DPU where she oversees stormwater and wastewater collections.

Sarah Deitz wanted to become an environmental engineer to “apply environmental concepts to improve surrounding communities. I always enjoyed science, and this was a way to apply it in a positive way.” Her biggest challenge was creating a network of mentors in the engineering field. “Having a supportive network is priceless,” she says. A recent hire at DPU, Deitz is an engineer in water resources.

(left) Rosemary Green (top row) Amanda Bickel, Janice Bailey, Susan Hamilton (bottom) Jennifer Hatchett, Sarah Deitz, Surani Olsen