HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) — The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) said Gravely Run Creek and parts of the James River are still not safe to swim in, after a failure at a Hopewell water treatment plant discharged about a million gallons of untreated sewage into the waterways.
The city of Hopewell said the faulty wiring at Hopewell Water Renewal that caused the outage is now repaired, and the situation is contained — but VDH said it will likely be several more days until it lifts the swimming advisory that went into effect Saturday, July 12.
Just before midnight on Friday, July 11th, an electrical failure Hopewell officials said was caused by faulty wiring made equipment inoperable. That led to overflow conditions, which discharged roughly a million gallons of untreated sewage…