Louisa points to power outage as cause of residents’ loss of water, boil water advisory

LOUISA COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Some Louisa County residents remain under a boil water advisory after issues at one of the county’s water plants were reported on Sunday, June 1. 

According to the county, these issues were caused by a power outage at the plant. A boil water advisory was

Luckily, this isn't impacting all of Louisa -- only residents who receive water from the county Water Authority New Bridge and the Lake Anna system, or about 60 homes and 12 businesses.

The county said it quickly got to work to fix this issue, but some residents did lose water for a couple of hours. But where did these problems start?

On Wednesday, May 28, after a "significant decline" in well production, it was determined that the pump and motor for the Lake Anna, New Bridge and Lake Anna Plaza Well were failing.

On Thursday, May 29, the well motor was pulled and a new one was installed. The county said, during a breaking-in period, well motors can pull more amps than normal, causing the overload protection to trip a breaker for the protection of the motor.

Until Sunday, June 2, at approximately 2:40 p.m., everything functioned properly, according to the county. However, due to "high demand," the motor pulled too many amps and caused the overload protection to trip the breaker.

Calls began coming in that Lake Anna, New Bridge and Lake Anna Plaza customers were out of water. Staff and electricians were on scene quickly, the county said.

A boil water advisory was then issued by the Virginia Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water "out of an abundance of caution." Customers were notified by paper copies hand-delivered, a post on the county's website, a notification through its push system and through Louisa’s public notification system.

Staff regained the system pressure by 5 p.m. on Sunday and refilled the storage system overnight.

The boil water advisory will be in effect until two rounds of samples confirm that the water is safe for drinking and cooking. The sampling process takes 48 to 72 hours to complete.

Because of the boil water advisory, water distribution started at the Louisa County Resource Council, located at 147 Resource Lane.  

“We’re set up to do water distribution for as long as the county needs us to do it," said executive director Lloyd Runnett.

But this isn’t the first time in the past few weeks that Louisa has had water issues.

“We just had another water issue a couple of weeks ago," Runnett said. "We actually have quite a bit [of water] here right now, so we’re ready to supply.” 

Northeast Creek customers were under a boil water advisory for 48 hours after a water main break on May 14. 

“So, this is rare," Runnett said. "And particularly that we’ve had two issues within a short period of time. Very rare.” 

Water distribution will continue until the advisory is lifted.