Please click here to read the latest on Richmond's May 2025 water outage.
Updated 11:45 a.m.: Less than two hours after assuring the public that no boil water advisory was needed, City of Richmond officials have now issued one for several neighborhoods served by the city’s Ginter Park water tank.
City officials said residents who live in the following areas may experience total loss of water service, while others may experience loss in water pressure:
- Byrd Park
- Brookland Park
- Carver
- Carytown
- Chamberlayne
- Fan District
- Ginter Park
- Jackson Ward
- Laburnum Park
- Museum District
- North Side
- Oregon Hill
- Randolph
- Scott’s Addition
- VCU’s Monroe Park campus
- Windsor Farms
- Parts of the city center
Residents in the affected areas are being asked to take conservation steps immediately and boil water before consuming it or using it to wash food or clothing or clean surfaces. However, residents in all neighborhoods are being asked to conserve water as the list of impact residents may expand as “water usage continues.”
According to the city’s release, Department of Public Utilities employees will continue to monitor the affected tank until full water pressure returns.
“Once the water pressure is back to normal in the impacted areas, Department of Public Utilities personnel will begin the process of flushing the system and subsequently lifting the Advisory,” the city’s 11:30 a.m. release says.
Richmond’s water treatment plant experienced issues overnight that caused a reduction in water production. Despite the reduction, city officials said the plant continued to produce enough water to avoid issuing a boil water advisory notice.
According to a statement issued Tuesday morning, the issues were caused by “high turbidity” — cloudy or murky water containing small particles of dirt — clogging some of the plant’s filters and causing a temporary reduction in filtered or finished water.
“I know many residents who experienced the recent drop in water pressure were frustrated—and for some, it may have felt like déjà vu,” 4th District Councilor Sarah Abubaker said in an email to VPM News.
Abubaker said it’s clear that Mayor Danny Avula and leadership with the city’s Department of Public Utilities have been working to strengthen operating procedures at the Douglasdale Road treatment facility.
“Their response to this morning’s issue shows that those efforts are beginning to pay off,” Abubaker said. “I appreciate their continued commitment to keeping City Council, regional partners, and residents informed with timely and transparent updates.”
City officials said they contacted the Virginia Department of Health and regional partners after midnight.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said water production recovered quickly and that city officials communicated with regional and state partners in a “timely manner.”
“That said, there’s still work to be done, and I’ll take a hard look at what happened and identify any future improvements needed,” Avula said.
On-site DPU staff reportedly followed new communication standard operating procedures, which were put in place following the January water crisis. DPU spokesperson Rhonda Johnson told VPM News on May 15 that employees were set to receive communication training after the city failed to report a fluoride overfeed incident, prompting state officials to send a “notice of alleged violation” letter.
Last week, after Richmond’s fluoride system was brought back online, Johnson said employees were up to speed and trained according to the new SOPs.
Fifth District Councilor Stephanie Lynch told VPM News that while the city’s communication flow has greatly improved, residents are still thirsty for answers.
“The mayor's office is planning to do a deeper dive with the facility and the filters and the equipment itself, but the new standard operating procedures that were implemented seem to have been followed pretty thoroughly,” Lynch said. “Had they not been followed thoroughly, we could have been in a different place this morning.”
DPU will be investigating the root cause of Tuesday’s incident, a city spokesperson said.
Please click here to read the latest on Richmond's May 2025 water outage.
