Hopewell Plant Expansion

Hopewell Source of Supply

Water is a precious resource, one often taken for granted in the eastern United States. However, as recent droughts have taught us, water supplies are limited and it is important to conserve and protect them as we plan for future needs. In the Mid-Atlantic, most community water sources of supply are either from underground wells or from an available surface water source such as a river, stream, or reservoir. The nature of the source water, its quality, quantity, and reliability, affects how water is treated and therefore ultimately the cost of water for drinking, domestic use, fire protection, and business use.

Hopewell’s source of supply for drinking water is the Appomattox River near the confluence (where two rivers meet) with the James River. The Appomattox River is part of the large James River watershed, which in turn is part of the larger Chesapeake Bay Watershed. A watershed is a drainage basin and includes all the streams and rivers that drain into a body of water as well as all the land in the drainage basin where rain or snow melt will drain directly to the body of water or into the feeding streams or rivers. Just as the Appomattox River watershed is part of a larger watershed, there are a number of smaller tributary streams, each with its own watershed, that flow into and are apart of the Appomattox River watershed. The Appomattox watershed drains approximately one million acres of agricultural, forested, rural residential, and urban land, most of which lie in the Virginia Piedmont.

The fresh water of the Appomattox River supports a rich variety of life. Plants, animals, fish, waterfowl, and people all depend on its waters for life. The water from the Appomattox River is not pure, that is, without impurities, and while no natural river or stream is pure, some have better water quality than others. Water quality changes constantly in the Appomattox River creating unique challenges. Virginia American Water’s experienced water treatment plant operators take great pride in their ability to consistently meet all the water quality standards of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the Virginia Department of Health. Droughts, hurricanes, changing tides, algal blooms and seasonal temperature changes all affect water quality. Our plant operators have experienced all the river’s changes and know when and how to adjust treatment processes when water quality changes.

Over a dozen of the small tributary streams flowing in to the Appomattox, and parts of the Appomattox River itself have been identified as having impaired water quality by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). They have been listed as impaired because of observed violations of Virginia’s bacteriological criteria. This bacterial pollution comes from several different sources across the watershed, including surface runoff from livestock, failing septic systems, fecal waste from pets, storm water runoff from streets and parking lots, untreated sewage discharge, and wildlife. In fact wildlife and waterfowl have been identified as the major source of fecal bacteria in some of the impaired streams feeding into the Appomattox River. The DEQ regulates water quality in the Appomattox River Watershed and there are 27 facilities with permits to discharge into the streams. As long as the streams and river are not overloaded with waste and pollution, much of the pollution is naturally diluted, decayed, and removed by plants, microorganisms and bacteria, although there are some pollutants that can not be naturally degraded.

Water quality in a river is impacted by more than just bacteria. Just about everything that impacts the environment upstream in a watershed, also impacts water quality and the environment downstream. The quality of water in a river is dependent on the watershed. The amount of rain that falls, pollution, soil erosion, and water use upstream impacts the watershed and water quality downstream. Soil erosion from forestry harvesting, agriculture, and construction have a visible impact on the Appomattox River’s water quality, especially after a rain storm. Although not as visible, human activity can also impact water quality as pesticides, fertilizers, household cleaners and detergents, oil and gasoline, and litter wash into streams from storm water runoff.

The lower Appomattox River, where Virginia American Water withdraws water for the City of Hopewell, is in the tidal estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. An estuary is a partly enclosed body of water where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Estuaries have constantly varying amounts of salt water and fresh water resulting from changing tides, wind, rainfall, and temperature. The Chesapeake is saltiest near the mouth of the Bay, gradually becoming fresher as you move further up the Bay and into its tributaries. So much fresh water flows down rivers like the James and the Appomattox that the water is fresh at the City of Hopewell. The Chesapeake Bay estuary has an abundance of diverse plant and animal life resulting from the mix of chemical, physical, and biological elements of both fresh water and salt water environments. Depending on the salinity, water quality, bottom sediments, temperature and flow rate of water, plant and animal populations in the Bay differ north to south, east to west, winter to summer, and from year to year.

Although there is an abundance and diversity of life in the Bay’s estuary, most of the living organisms are too small to see with the naked eye. Microscopic plants and animals, known as plankton, float in the water and exist in great numbers in the Bay. Microscopic animals called zooplankton drift in the Bay currents as do microscopic plants called phytoplankton. Most of the phytoplankton in the Bay and in the tidal James and Appomattox rivers is microscopic algae, and together with zooplankton, suspended particles of soil eroded from along our streams and rivers, and the detritus of life, they give the water its characteristic murky brown-green color. 

The water in the lower Appomattox River may be complex and always changing, but it is also proven to be reliable. This is because we are able to take advantage of the both the Appomattox River watershed and the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed. Under normal conditions, all of our water comes from the Appomattox River watershed. During excessive droughts, when flow down the Appomattox is greatly reduced, water levels at Hopewell nonetheless remain consistent, rising and falling with the tides. During high tide, water that flowed past Hopewell from the Appomattox and James Rivers during low tide, flows back, keeping water levels consistent. Typically the larger the watershed, the more reliable the water supply as there is a greater likelihood that rain will fall somewhere in that watershed during the year. Water levels at Hopewell will not fall, no matter how severe the drought, because water levels are tied to water levels in the large Chesapeake estuary, fluctuating with the tides of the Atlantic Ocean. We do however have to monitor salinity levels to ensure salt water does not back up to Hopewell during a drought.

The source of supply for Hopewell’s drinking water is the Appomattox River near the confluence with the James River. It is a valuable resource we all need to protect. Water quality will always change as a result of drought, rain, changing temperature, changing tides and powerful storms like the hurricanes that come up the Bay, but human activity also plays a large role. Pollution from the Appomattox River watershed and algae from the tidal estuary offer Virginia American Water its greatest water quality challenges. It is a challenge we meet every day, year after year. After all, water is what we do.

About the Plant

Quick Facts:

-          The Hopewell Water Treatment plant provides water service to 9,300 customers (population of 50,000) in the City of Hopewell, Portions of Prince George County and Fort Lee.

-          The Hopewell Water Treatment plant produces two grades of water; Potable (or drinking) water and Non-potable (or industrial) water.

-          Portions of the existing treatment plant date back to the early 1900s and are still in service.

Need for improvements:

-          Do to ongoing growth in the region; the potable water treatment facilities are approaching the permitted capacity of 12 million gallons a day.

-          Many non-potable treatment facilities date back to the early 1900s and are at the end of their useful life.

Plant improvement project:

-          Upgrade the capacity of the potable water treatment facilities to 18 million gallons a day.

o        Improvements to existing settling basin

o        Improvements to chemical feed systems

o        Addition of two new filters

o        Addition of a new 2.5 million gallon storage tank

o        Addition/replacement of distribution pumps

o        Addition of four carbon contactors

-          Replace the existing non-potable water filters with facilities having a capacity of 18 million gallons a day.

o        Replacement of existing wood tub filters with four new filters

o        Addition/replacement of process piping

o        Improvements to chemical feed systems

-          Estimated project cost - $24.7 million.

-          Construction began July 2009

-          Estimated completion date May 2011

-          Project Team:

o        Engineer – Gannett Fleming, Harrisburg, Pa

o        Contractor – Pizzagalli Construction Company, South Burlington, Vt

o        Subcontractors –

§         CROM Corporation, Gainesville, Fl – Storage tank.

§         Rudy Hawkins Electrical, Hopewell, Va – Electric work

Harlan Construction, Hopewell, Va – Building construction