Clean tap water isn't flowing in Virginia's capital as residents find creative ways to cope

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Theresa Fulgham wasn’t going to wait any longer. After days without water in Virginia’s capital that prompted some residents to melt snow to flush toilets, it was time to get cleaned up.

“We need a shower today. Enough is enough,” Fulgham, a live-in caregiver, said Thursday as she escorted her client to a YMCA with running water.

Nerves were frayed in Richmond, home to 200,000 people, as repair crews rushed to get the city's water system working again after it was knocked out Monday during a powerful winter storm. By Thursday morning, brown sludgy water began to trickle back into many pipes, however it remains unsafe to drink without boiling – even where it’s running clear.

In complex city water systems like Richmond, getting pressure back still doesn’t mean the tap water is safe to drink. Residents will need to keep boiling their water until at least Friday, the city said.

Registered nurse Latoya Jones said her daughter put snow in the bathtub to help flush toilets. Buying paper plates helped minimize water usage.

“Washing dishes, that’s a joke right now,” Jones said. She might take her kids to a local high school that had water.

“Our next family field trip will be to take a shower,” Jones said, smiling. “You can’t make this stuff up.”

At a dozen YMCA locations, more than 4,000 non-members have come for hot showers in recent days, said Jody Alexander, who leads the organization in Greater Richmond.

Liz Canfield was one of them.

“What a lovely experience,” Canfield said. “The five minutes I had was glorious.”

The city is distributing bottled water at 11 sites and delivering it to older residents and others unable to get to those locations. More than 45,000 gallons of bottled water were handed out Tuesday and Wednesday. In addition, residents filled jugs with water from a tanker truck.

Susan Stevens said she found herself constantly turning on her tap, “forgetting that it’s not going to run or it comes out in a small trickle, but that I can’t use it.”

Miguel Vasquez turned on his sink and saw water trickle out for the first time in days.

“I am just wondering, hopefully, that there will be some clarity on why this happened,” Vasquez said. “I have a lot of questions, because obviously the storm wasn’t that bad.”

Mayor Danny Avula would like to know too. The outage occurred less than a week after he took office.

After a power failure at the water plant, a battery backup system that could have kept water flowing stopped working, Avula said.

The water system is now fully pressurized and tests for bacteria have started, he said at a news conference Thursday. The boil-water advisory will be lifted once two sets of tests, taken 16 hours apart, come back negative.

“I am as — or more — interested than anybody about how we make sure that this doesn’t happen in the future,” the mayor said.

Fulgham, who also has been melting snow and ice to flush toilets and using bottled water to brush teeth, was ready to give Avula a pass on the problem.

“We need to work on the infrastructure,” Fulgham said. “I’m not going to blame this on Avula like I’ve seen a lot of people, but we need some work done. The whole system needs need to be redone.”

The crisis impacted neighboring Henrico and Hanover counties, which both issued boil-water advisories days after Richmond’s outage.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin acknowledged that “people are angry and frustrated and tired.”

The start of the state legislative session was delayed Wednesday due to the lack of water at the Capitol. But Youngkin told reporters it wasn’t a major concern — the work will get done eventually.

“There are a lot more important issues with this water crisis right now,” he said.

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia. AP writer Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, contributed to this report.

Mayor Danny Avula speaks during a press conference at the main library branch in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Residents of Virginia’s capital city were without water service for a fourth day. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Kathryn Settle distributes bottled water at Randolph Community Center in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Kathryn Settle and Caitlin Maybry distribute bottled water at Randolph Community Center in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Mayor Danny Avula speaks during a press conference at the main library branch in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Residents of Virginia’s capital city were without water service for a fourth day. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Keith Crabtree walks past bottled water as he coordinates city resources at Randolph Community Center in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Portable toilets line the sidewalk outside the state Capitol building in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Chris Kucha returns to her car after receiving bottled water at Randolph Community Center in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Adam Guay carries jugs of water for Theresa Slayton from a tank truck at Southside Plaza in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as the city recovers from a water outage after a winter storm. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

Water sprays from a fire hydrant opened to release pressure in the Scott's Addition neighborhood of Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ryan M. Kelly)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday struck down abortion restrictions by conservative cities and counties, helping to ensure the state remains a go-to destination for people from other states with bans.

The unanimous opinion, in response to a request from state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, reinforces the state’s position as having some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country.

Attorneys representing the cities of Hobbs and Clovis and Lea and Roosevelt counties had argued that provisions of a federal “anti-vice” law known as the Comstock Act block courts from striking down local abortion ordinances.

But Justice C. Shannon Bacon, writing for the majority opinion, said state law precludes cities and counties from restricting abortion or regulating abortion clinics.

“The ordinances violate this core precept and invade the Legislature’s authority to regulate access to and provision of reproductive healthcare,” she wrote. “We hold the ordinances are preempted in their entirety.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez praised the court’s ruling Thursday, saying that the core of the argument was that state laws preempted any action by local governments to engage in activities that would infringe on the constitutional rights of citizens.

“The bottom line is simply this: Abortion access is safe and secure in New Mexico," he said. "It’s enshrined in law by the recent ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court and thanks to the work of the New Mexico Legislature.”

New Mexico House Speaker Javier Martínez called access to health care a basic fundamental right in New Mexico.

“It doesn’t take a genius to understand the statutory framework that we have. Local governments don’t regulate health care in New Mexico. It is up to the state,” the Albuquerque Democrat said.

Opposition to abortion runs deep in New Mexico communities along the border with Texas, which has one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S.

But Democrats, who control every statewide elected office in New Mexico and hold majorities in the state House and Senate, have moved to shore up access to abortion — before and after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, eliminating the nationwide right to abortion.

In 2021, the New Mexico Legislature repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, ensuring access to abortion even after the Roe v. Wade reversal.

And in 2023, Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill that overrides local ordinances aimed at limiting abortion access and enacted a shield law that protects abortion providers from investigations by other states.

In September, construction began on a state-funded reproductive health and abortion clinic in southern New Mexico that will cater to local residents and people who travel from neighboring states.

The new clinic is scheduled for completion by early 2026 to provide services ranging from medical and procedural abortions to contraception, cervical cancer screenings and education about adoptions.

In Thursday's opinion, justices said they "strongly admonish” Roosevelt County, in particular, for an ordinance that would have allowed individuals to file lawsuits demanding damages of more than $100,000 for violations of the county's abortion ordinance.

The provision would have created "a private right of action and damages award that is clearly intended to punish protected conduct,” the court said in its opinion.

Erin Hawley, a vice president at Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian legal advocacy group, is an attorney who argued on behalf of Roosevelt County in the case. On Thursday, she criticized the court's decision and emphasized its limitations.

“Roosevelt County and other New Mexico localities should be able to enforce ordinances that comply with federal law and protect the lives of their citizens,” said Hawley, the wife of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. “We're grateful that the New Mexico Supreme Court did not abandon common sense and find a so-called right to abortion in the state constitution.”

It was not immediately clear whether the ruling can be appealed in federal court or influence broader efforts to apply Comstock Act restrictions on abortion. The New Mexico Supreme Court opinion explicitly declined to address conflicts with federal law, basing its decision solely on state provisions.

Austin, Texas-based attorney Jonathan Mitchell, a former Texas solicitor general and architect of that state's strict abortion ban, said he looked forward "to litigating these issues in other states and bringing the meaning of the federal Comstock Act to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

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Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.

FILE - The New Mexico Supreme Court Building is seen, Jan. 9, 2023, in Santa Fe, N.M. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)

FILE - New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez listens to oral arguments dealing with local municipalities implementing ordinances restricting abortion, Dec. 13, 2023 in Santa Fe, N.M. . (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, file)