James is too low, voluntary water restrictions coming

Without significant rainfall in the next few days, Richmond and the localities that depend on the James River for water are facing voluntary water restrictions by Friday. Just how low is the water in the James compared to the lowest recorded levels? From the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities: As a result of […]

August 10, 2011; 6:20 AM • by Phil Riggan

Without significant rainfall in the next few days, Richmond and the localities that depend on the James River for water are facing voluntary water restrictions by Friday. Just how low is the water in the James compared to the lowest recorded levels?

From the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities:

As a result of the current water levels in the James River, the city of Richmond, along with the counties of Henrico, Hanover and Goochland are in the Ready Alert stage of announcing water conservation measures. Voluntary conservation measures are expected to be announced on Friday, August 12.

This plan calls for the implementation of voluntary conservation measures once water levels in the James River reach Natural River Flow (NRF) 14-day rolling average of 1,200 cfs (cubic feet per second) or approximately 3.4 feet of depth at the Richmond-Westham Gauge.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Richmond-Westham gauge showed the water levels to be around 3.49 feet, which is pretty far from the lowest recorded levels from the National Weather Service. The level was at around 3.35 feet Sunday.

Another way to measure the water is by cubic feet per second, and that too is quite low. It was at around 1,140 kcfs Tuesday at 10 p.m., after dropping down to 900 kcfs on Sunday.

Low Water Records for James River at Richmond-Westham gauge:

(1) 2.00 ft on 09/22/1966
(2) 2.94 ft on 10/21/1968
(3) 2.94 ft on 10/10/1970
(4) 3.00 ft on 09/25/1936
(5) 3.00 ft on 09/17/1943
(6) 3.12 ft on 09/30/1981

(Never heard of the Westham gauge? Want to see what it looks like?)

For additional information, specific to localities, contact:
County of Chesterfield Customer Service 748-1291
County of Goochland Public Utilities 556-5835
County of Hanover Public Utilities 365-6024
County of Henrico Customer Service 501-4275
City of Richmond Customer Care Center 644-3000

August 10, 2011 6:20 AM 0