The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors reviewed concerns relating to public utilities Tuesday night in the colonial courthouse. Director of Public Utilities Katey Legg delivered the presentation.
The county has funded 28 full-time positions for utilities and is currently experiencing four vacancies, which are in the line maintenance and pump station departments.
The county owns 19 pump stations, managed by a three-person crew. “Capacity is not generally an issue,” said Legg about the pump stations. “The court house is a different situation.”
There are five pump stations in the court house area, but only one is connected to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District system.
“[Pumps] 13 and 11 are over capacity,” said Legg. “We can’t support any development added to those pump stations.”
Legg reviewed the previous sewer improvement plan, which was supposed to have begun in 2017 with pump station 11.
“None of this had been done when I arrived in ’24,” she said.
The current capital plan includes upgrading pump stations 11 and 13 and making line improvements, amounting to a cost of $6 million over five years. “That work is ongoing,” said Legg, mentioning that work on pump 11 is 95 percent completed.
Also discussed was the county’s water treatment plant operation. The county’s 16-hour water treatment operation produces 1.6 million gallons per day. This is up from 2025 operations, which produced 1.47 million gallons per day with 1.29 million gallons completely finished and treated. Most of the county’s water customers are residents, followed by commercial businesses, the state and government.
“We know we need to go to 24 hours,” said Legg.
To create a 24-hour operation, the county would need to handle additional operational costs and make some upgrades. Two more operators, as well as additional chemicals and electricity would be required to make the 24-hour operation possible.
The current equipment and storage capabilities also pose a problem. “We’ll be lucky to get to 2 million gallons a day,” said Legg.
If the county can upgrade the raw water pump, increase storage and address possible limitations with the distribution pumps, the water treatment plant could likely produce 2.5 million gallons or more per day.
In the CIP, an additional raw water pump and a million-gallon tank is planned to be completed over three years for $3.1 million. However, a long-term expansion of the plant would cost about $17 million.
In other future CIP projects are the Main Street waterline replacement and 21 projects to address fire flow and pipe material in the county’s waterline infrastructure, anticipated to cost $15 million over five years. All of these projects, however, are dependent on other needs that may arise.
“We have a plan, then something else comes along,” said Legg.
Budget
The FY26 utilities budget is projected to be more than $700,000 over what was originally allotted. To balance the budget, the county plans to use the application fees ($547,725) and some of the unassigned fund balance ($192,225). This overage is due to emergency situations that staff could not handle and had to be contracted out.