Has Richmond's spring water suddenly gone bad?

Officials this week posted signs at several popular spring-water pipes in the city claiming "Spring Water Not Safe For Drinking."

There's just one problem: The water might be perfectly safe.

The city said yesterday that it is no longer testing the water because of budget constraints, so it figured the prudent course was to post signs saying the water is unsafe.

The signs went up in recent days at several city-managed parks in Richmond. Two of the most popular are Wayside Spring Park in the Westover Hills neighborhood of South Richmond and at Chimborazo Park in the Church Hill neighborhood of the city's East End.

Both locations have been havens for generations of people looking to tap one of Richmond's natural treasures.

It's not unusual for people to drive up to one of the springs and begin unloading dozens of plastic gallon jugs to fill with free spring water, a practice that seems to have grown in popularity in recent years with the rising costs of pre-bottled spring water sold in grocery stores.

Richmond's Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities maintains both parks -- Wayside Spring, a small, heavily wooded natural area a few hundred yards south of the James River; and Chimborazo Park, which overlooks the river valley from atop Church Hill.

A marble marker at Wayside Spring says the stone staircase that leads to a landing area featuring two pipes gushing spring water was built in the 1930s.

The spring water at Chimborazo Park traces its roots even deeper. A cornerstone in the wall that holds three water pipes is inscribed with "1895."

The Richmond Health Department used to have the city's spring water tested regularly but stopped several years ago when the Virginia Department of Consolidated Laboratory Services began charging for all laboratory tests, said George Jones, a health promotion manager for the city.

John R. Pope Jr., the city's director of parks, recreation and community facilities, said he believes eight of the department's parks have springs, and signs have been posted at all of them.

The prospects for resuming testing are uncertain, Pope said.

"They haven't been tested lately," he said. "To err on the side of caution, we put the signs up saying the water was unsafe to drink because we don't know."

The city might want to consider finding a way to resume testing, said Linwood Norman, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder's press secretary.

"The Health Department would regularly check those springs," Norman said. "So it may be a matter of getting them back regularly into the equation."

Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or jmacenka@timesdispatch.com.