Petersburg Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

The Petersburg Water & Sewer Utilities division, operated by the City of Petersburg, Virginia, serves the city and portions of surrounding Dinwiddie County. Water is sourced exclusively from Chesdin Reservoir, formed by the Brasfield Dam impounding the Appomattox River upstream. The reservoir supplies the Petersburg Water Treatment Plant, which processes all municipal water through conventional treatment including coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and disinfection before distribution to approximately 33,000 residents. Treatment also includes chloramination for disinfection, fluoridation, and orthophosphate addition for corrosion control.

The Appomattox River watershed spans the Piedmont and Coastal Plain provinces, draining 1,400 square miles of rolling hills, forests, and farmland before reaching Chesdin Reservoir. Underlying geology includes Precambrian to Paleozoic metamorphic gneisses and granites in the Piedmont, overlain by Quaternary sands and clays in the Coastal Plain. No major limestone aquifers like the Floridan influence this area; instead, fractured crystalline bedrock and sandy sediments yield runoff with low mineral content, producing a soft to moderately mineralized supply shaped by dilute surface waters rather than groundwater dissolution.

As a soft to moderately hard supply, Petersburg's water causes minimal scale buildup in pipes and fixtures, reducing risks to water heaters, dishwashers, and washing machines compared to harder regions. Soap lathers easily with little scum formation, and skin dryness is uncommon. A water softener is typically unnecessary; routine flushing of hot water systems every few years suffices for maintenance. pH is maintained at 7.0–8.0 per EPA standards; no PFAS exceedances have been reported in recent monitoring. Fluoride is added to approximately 0.7 ppm, and occasional low-level iron from reservoir sediments is addressed by filtration at the treatment plant.