CHESAPEAKE – HRSD has received the Army Corps of Engineers Incident Report detailing the Friday, March 11, 2023 incident that resulted in an HRSD 20-inch cast iron force main becoming compromised and discharging 2.5 million gallons of wastewater into the canal at the Great Bridge Lock.

According to the report, the tug boat, Miss Judy was moving the dredge Essex, owned by Norfolk Dredging through the canal. At roughly 1:00 p.m., the tug boat radioed the bridge tender that one of the dredge’s ‘spuds’ (a large stake used by a dredge to pinion or anchor it into place) was stuck on something. HRSD was first notified of the incident at approximately 5:48 p.m. by the City of Chesapeake, noting an observed bubbling and the appearance of wastewater. Upon notification HRSD crews checked their systems and noticed that the damage appeared to have occurred at 1:15 p.m. based on a drastic drop in pressures that occurred in the force main at that time. HRSD dispatched crews to valve off and divert wastewater flows from the compromised pipe, isolating the force main by 8:00 p.m.; however, the total volume of wastewater lost was 2.5 million gallons.

The Virginia Department of Health continues to advise residents to postpone plans to fish or recreate in the water until water quality results have returned to background levels. HRSD Water Quality personnel are conducting daily sampling of the waterway and are working with the Virginia Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Quality to monitor the impacted waterway.

There have been no service disruptions and no injuries reported resulting from the line break. There are currently no impacts to marine or vehicular traffic in the area. HRSD operations crews are still determining the plan for repair which will carefully consider the long term sustainability of the infrastructure and feasibility of repairs.

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