Richmond places water system under advisory after tank defects; council orders contract review

A precautionary water advisory and follow-up testing were issued Sept. 9 for Richmond’s municipal system after inspections found small defects in the elevated storage tank and evidence of long-running operational gaps, Town Administrator Aaron Leese said at the Sept. 16 Town Council meeting.

The advisory followed a level-2 total-coliform trigger and subsequent internal tank inspections by Northeast Water Solutions. Company president Robert Ferrari said inspectors found two small defects in an access hatch where the tank could be exposed to the outside. The town then issued a precautionary boil-water advisory while crews repaired the defects and conducted disinfecting and follow-up sampling.

The advisory prompted detailed questioning from council members about how the problem arose and what steps the town and its contracted operator, Northeast Water Solutions, have taken. Danielle Angajanian, compliance and operations manager for the contractor, said regular flushing, tank inspections every five years and correcting thermal stratification are critical to microbiological control. Ferrari said the system’s water age grew substantially after a second, larger tank was added in 2015, increasing the system’s vulnerability to bacteria and making regular mixing and cleaning more important.

Ferrari told the council the town’s system, which serves roughly 300 service connections, had 16 positive bacterial events before his firm’s contract began in October 2022; the firm has reduced that to four level-2 events in three years through flushing and other operational changes. He described the recently completed repairs to the elevated tank, the planned startup of a formally approved (4-log) disinfection system, and a scheduled remote monitoring (SCADA) system to track chlorine residuals continuously.

Leese and Ferrari said constructing mixing systems for both tanks and completing the new chlorination/SCADA monitoring are priorities. Leese told the council the town is coordinating with the state Department of Health and expects some costs to be borne by water system customers rather than general-tax revenues.

Council members pressed for further review of past operations. Councilor Dan Dinsmore moved that the town solicitor review the previous water-operator contract to determine whether services paid for were not rendered as agreed and whether any remedy exists; the council approved the motion unanimously (4-0). The council also voted to file the summary report and requested quarterly operational reports from the operator as a follow-up to tonight’s discussion.

Town and operator officials urged customers on the municipal system to subscribe to the town’s Richmond Water Alerts for timely notices and invited volunteers for lead-and-copper sampling required once the 4-log system is active.

If the new chlorination and mixing systems perform as planned, town staff said the risk of recurrent microbiological events should drop substantially; some capital work to address mixing and persistent water-age problems may be eligible for principal forgiveness through the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank.

The council asked staff and the operator to provide a short list of recommended repairs, a timing estimate for completing the SCADA/4-log start-up, and an outline of expected customer impacts and costs for the next meeting.