When Sam White turned her faucet to full blast the morning of April 10, only a trickle came out.

It’s the second time in three months the Farm Road area resident has found herself unexpectedly without water. Isle of Wight County confirmed on April 11 that there had been a temporary outage the day before due to a break in the water main serving Days Point and Farm roads that officials say is now fixed.

“The line has been repaired and service is normal,” Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson told The Smithfield Times.

A previous failure in the old Days Point well screen, which keeps rock fragments from entering the water supply, had interrupted water service for a day during the last weekend in January, and resulted in the area remaining under a boil water notice for a month after. During the month it took for the new communal well to pass Virginia Department of Health tests, Isle of Wight used a third-party contractor to haul in water to maintain flow to Days Point area homes.

“The tanker water smelled … I even boiled water for my dog,” White said.

Days Point is one of three county-owned well systems slated to eventually be capped off and connected to the new 500,000-gallon water tower that serves Hardy Elementary. 

Though it’s presently only serving the new school that opened its doors in 2023, the tower was built with sufficient capacity to serve Hardy and the surrounding Days Point, Thomas Park and Tormentors Creek neighborhoods using water the county purchases from the town of Smithfield. 

“I don’t think any timelines have been established for that project yet,” Robertson said.