Notes / 311 / Public Utilities
Public Utilities (DPU)
Last revised: July 2026.
DPU handles stormwater, sewer, and streetlights. Stormwater requests (basin cleaning, standing water assessment, drain repair) make up the largest share of the open backlog.
DPU (Public Utilities) has limited coverage in 311 — it manages and monitors most billing-related customer requests through its own separate system, outside 311.
See DPU’s SLA performance →See DPU by geography →
Includes records the City’s system still flags as open, regardless of last-activity date. About 8% of currently-open DPU requests were submitted before 2022 and most have not been modified in years. See methodology for how this number relates to the City’s published charts.
What’s in Play Each Month
Last 6 fully-elapsed months — the current month is excluded because it’s still accumulating. Every request is split two ways: whether it was already backlog coming into the month or opened fresh that month, and whether it closed by month’s end or is still open. A request that stays open moves from “new” into “backlog” in the following month’s bar — it’s the same rolling stock shown from month to month, not four separate counts.
How One Ticket Moves
Month 1: opens
Counted as New
Month 2: still open
Now counted as Backlog
Month 3: closes
Counted as Backlog, cleared
If it had closed back in Month 1 instead, it counts as New, closed and never becomes backlog at all.
| Month | Backlog, still open | Backlog, cleared | New, still open | New, closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | 2,882 | 279 | 216 | 87 |
| Jun 2026 | 2,853 | 245 | 267 | 142 |
| Jul 2026 | 2,931 | 189 | 287 | 182 |
| Aug 2026 | 3,108 | 110 | 202 | 138 |
| Sep 2026 | 3,069 | 241 | 176 | 131 |
| Oct 2026 | 2,888 | 357 | 121 | 217 |
Open Requests by Subtype
Subtypes with no currently-open requests omitted from the chart; they appear in the table below.
Completion rate vs median resolution days
Each point is a subtype. X = median calendar days from submission to closure. Y = share of submitted requests that have closed. Point size = total volume.
Stormwater subtypes (basin cleaning, standing water assessment, basin repair) cluster in the lower-left to lower-middle: longer resolution, lower completion. Sewer and streetlight subtypes resolve faster.
Subtype detail
| Subtype | Open | Total | Completion % | Median days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basin Cleaning | 1,261 | 3,907 | 69.7% | 44 |
| Assess Stormwater | 835 | 2,613 | 70.9% | 38 |
| Repair Basin | 372 | 797 | 58.5% | 148 |
| Repair Streetlight | 315 | 7,995 | 96.3% | 4 |
| New Streetlight | 124 | 382 | 69.6% | 31 |
| Sinkhole | 40 | 1,534 | 97.8% | 28 |
| Missing Stormwater Manhole Cover | 14 | 141 | 90.1% | 49 |
| Odor from Sewer | 12 | 316 | 96.2% | 16 |
| Assess land disturbance or erosion | 9 | 106 | 91.5% | 12 |
| Backup of Sewer | 9 | 486 | 98.1% | 25 |
| Assess sewer manhole problem | 7 | 179 | 96.1% | 15 |
| Broken Sewer Cleanout | 5 | 162 | 96.9% | 16 |
| 4 | — | — | — | |
| Raise or Lower Sewer Manhole | 4 | 209 | 98.1% | 19 |
| Maintenance or Repair Needed | 2 | — | — | — |
| Install Sewer Cleanout | 1 | 44 | 97.7% | 19 |
| Other (provide details below) | 1 | — | — | — |
| Overflow of Sewer | 1 | 190 | 99.5% | 23 |
| Parking or Traffic Concern | 1 | — | — | — |
| Illicit Discharge to Stormwater | 0 | 93 | 100.0% | 7 |
| Location Sewer Lateral | 0 | 56 | 100.0% | 21 |
| Missing Sewer Manhole Cover | 0 | 176 | 100.0% | 21 |
| Noisy Sewer Manhole Cover | 0 | 76 | 100.0% | 12 |
| Request TV of Sewer | 0 | 64 | 100.0% | 21 |
| Shade Streetlight | 0 | 58 | 100.0% | 37 |
| Vermin from Sewer | 0 | 95 | 100.0% | 13 |
Open is the all-time count of currently-open requests. Total, Completion %, and Median days are computed from requests submitted 2022 onward; subtypes with fewer than 25 requests in that window show —.
Definitions, status codes, and limitations: RVA311 methodology.