Louisa County officials discuss leaking tank, aging water softeners at county housing complex

Mister Cleary, a county official, told the Louisa County Board of Supervisors on May 14 that a storage tank serving the county housing complex has a leaking outlet that has become a drip and needs repair, and that the softener equipment for the complex is old and increasingly difficult to maintain.

The maintenance staff member said the immediate repair will likely require taking the tank out of service to cut and reweld the outlet and inspect the interior. “But in that time frame, if we're gonna take it out of service, that's probably the time to replace the media and the filters,” the staff member said. He described a phased approach: make the immediate repair to stop the leak and get softener heads operating, then gather bids and cost estimates for replacing media and possibly performing a full engineering study for a long-term solution.

Why it matters: the complex houses county-managed residents and includes a kitchen required to meet regulated dishwashing temperatures. Staff said hard water deposits are harming kitchen equipment and dishes, and residents and managers reported visible limescale on dishes and appliances. Susie, a complex staff member, said the limescale has “ruined our dishwasher” and forced extra labor to keep dishes usable.

County staff outlined near-term and longer-term options. Near-term: bring a welder or contractor to cut and repair the leaking outlet, and temporarily provide pressurized water via a temporary tank and pump while repairs proceed. Medium-term: replace control heads and repair softeners; staff mentioned an earlier, rough figure of about $12,000 as an estimate for new heads to restore operation, but said that number is outdated and that updated quotes are needed. Long-term: consider replacing media, treating the well, or commissioning an engineering study to determine whether a system upgrade (for example reverse osmosis or other treatment) is warranted.

Staff also described supply-chain issues for parts: “The people who service our softener... number one, just getting parts,” the maintenance staff said, and noted that softener heads and media have not been replaced in many years. Board members pressed for documentation of routine water-quality visits and testing; the maintenance staff said daily-visit logs and testing records exist and that staff will provide that documentation to managers.

The county directed staff to obtain updated cost estimates and vendor quotes and return with numbers the board can consider during budget planning. No formal contract or appropriation was approved at the meeting.

Board members discussed scheduling the most urgent repairs before summer to avoid a prolonged outage for residents and to allow the board to consider phased funding during next year’s budget process.