Richmond’s main water treatment plant lost power on Jan. 6 due to a mechanical failure, the firm hired to review the outage found in its final report. But the city’s lack of preparation and poor communication were among several other factors that exacerbated the outage that led to the crisis.
The final report’s conclusion matched the one HNTB — the engineering firm commissioned to conduct the plant failure’s investigation — came to in its draft report released in March.
The final report, published in City Council documents, provides additional details about the water plant failure that kept the city from delivering drinkable water to residents and other counties for days.
This includes a timeline of the city’s internal communications over the outage and when Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities contacted regional partners that rely on the plant’s water and the Virginia Department of Health.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said in a statement Thursday he’s working with DPU Director Scott Morris to quickly implement the report’s recommended changes in the wake of the outage.
“We are committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again, and I’m grateful that the recommendations provided in this final assessment will put us on the right path,” Avula said.
The city’s three wholesale customers — Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties — were not properly notified of the severity until “later in the afternoon” that day, the report found.
Chesterfield and Henrico counties weren’t told about the plant failure until more than an hour after it happened, HNTB found. Hanover County wasn’t notified until more than eight hours after the outage.
Independent reviews commissioned by Henrico and Hanover also faulted the city on the lack of proper communication, finding that the issues hindered their ability to respond to the crisis.
HNTB found “several instances of either miscommunication or misinformation among DPU and City staff members,” including text messages incorrectly claiming that the plant’s backup generators started after it lost power. The origin of the idea that the generators were on is “unclear,” according to HNTB’s final report.
“A misrepresentation like this likely caused a false sense of security by City and regional leaders early on in the crisis that occurred,” the report states.
Messages saying the generator had switched on went to the plant’s superintendent, the city’s DPU director at the time, the city’s interim chief administrative officer and Chesterfield utilities director.
Other communication issues found by HNTB’s review included:
- April Bingham, Richmond's former DPU director, didn't discuss the possibility of an interruption to the city's water service with interim Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg until almost five hours after the plant lost power
- Mayor Avula’s office didn’t know the severity of the crisis until a 1 p.m. briefing on Jan. 6
- DPU staff at the plant didn’t all have handheld radios to communicate with each other, which the report called a “safety hazard”
- Richmond DPU failed to notify VDH about the failure on the morning of Jan. 6; the chief of field operations for VDH’s Office of Drinking Water first heard of potential issues from the local health department that afternoon
HNTB did not speak with Bingham, DPU’s former director, who was ultimately fired by Avula after rescinding a resignation. HNTB said Bingham initially declined to be interviewed for the review. The firm’s contact information was shared with her, but the city did not provide Bingham’s contact to HNTB, according to the final report.
A document with questions from City Council members to HNTB was attached to the final report, many of which were answered by referring councilors to the final report or saying it was outside the review’s scope.
Despite Avula previously defending Richmond’s communications with nearby counties, the final report said the city didn’t “adequately convey” the severity of the situation with Chesterfield and Henrico on the morning of Jan. 6. There were also delays in reporting the failure to Hanover County and VDH.
The “root cause” of Richmond’s water plant issues was a mechanical failure that kept the facility from automatically transferring to a second power source, HNTB concluded. DPU staff at the water plant “were not adequately prepared for the incoming storm,” the report found.
DPU has developed new emergency response protocols for severe weather events and upgraded staffing standards. The city said it has spent roughly $5 million for plant repairs and upgrades.
The city said the water plant is now permanently operating in “Summer Mode,” which supplies power through two feeders; "Winter Mode" uses one feeder to power the plant.
Having the plant in “Winter Mode” — used by the city “as a cost savings measure” — put it “at greater risk,” the report states.
VDH is expected to release its own investigative report on the crisis later this month, a spokesperson told VPM News; a notice the agency sent the city in January found it “should never have happened and was completely avoidable.”
Findings from a separate review of Richmond’s emergency response procedures are expected to be released once a report is done, according to the city.
