Workers deliver bottled water from West End Branch Library during a citywide water outage in Richmond, Va., January 9, 2025. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Virginia Mercury)
Results from the first of two water tests are expected to come in on Friday afternoon around 3 p.m., Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said at a Friday morning press conference. While results of tests can take about 24 hours to complete, within 16 hours of collecting yesterday’s sample, another one was taken to be tested as well. Pending negative results of both, Avula will end the boil water advisory that’s been in effect since Monday, triggered by the water plant’s failure due to a winter storm.
Richmond’s water fully pressurized, boil advisory could be lifted Friday or Saturday
Ahead of Friday night’s expected snowfall, Avula said that the plant is buffeted by additional staff or contractors on site — mechanics, engineers, information technology workers — and VDH staff. Avula added that a new battery backup to supply the plant’s computer systems in the event of a power disruption has been installed and additional repair parts for filters are on site. Supervisors are expected to do inspections and staff will have hourly status-checking.
For other storm preparedness outside of the water plant, Avula said that the Department of Public Works will be salting and sanding local roads and snow plows will be “ready if needed.”
After teasing a planned “after-action report” throughout the week to suss out further details of what went wrong, Avula committed to an independent review during Friday’s press conference.
“We are absolutely outsourcing this. We’re going to bring in a third party to do that investigation,” Avula said.
It’s unclear how long that could take but he hopes to have tapped a group to lead the investigation by next week.
For the second day in a row Department of Public Utilities director April Bingham was absent at the press conference. Both times, Avula noted that she was at the plant.
“That’s where I need her focused,” Avula said on Friday. “As we get through the storm, that’s when she will be available for questions next week.”
WTVR reported that an inspection performed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 detailed “corroded pipes, bacterial contamination and a lack of attention to emergency preparedness.”
The Richmond Times-Dispatch also noted that a DPU engineer proposed improvements to outdated equipment at the plant to the city’s Planning Commission last summer. That proposal requested three new water pumps with claims that the old models were outdated and that their repair parts were no longer available from their original manufacturers.
This means that city officials have known about the potential for failures at the plant for some time.
When Bingham was last present at a press conference, on Wednesday, she noted that the plant is 100 years old and said she had responded to the 2022 EPA citation.
“I’m not going to combine the two, because I can’t, right today, say that they were connected,” she told reporters.
On Thursday Avula confirmed that Bingham had sent a letter to the EPA the previous week highlighting the plant’s redundancy systems (which ultimately failed a few days later).
As to the failure at the plant this week, at Friday’s conference Avula guided reporters through the current-known “cascade” of events that went wrong.
Avula said that Dominion Energy Virginia, the state’s largest electricity provider, feeds two power sources at the plant. When one fails, the second one was supposed to automatically switch on, but that didn’t happen in this case. When the second power source failed to activate, an electrician arrived Monday morning and manually made the switch. Avula explained that the electrician made the call to not turn on generators, which are the backup in the instance that the battery backups fail. Then, IT systems that Avula called the “brains” of the plant did not reboot properly post-power outage, which caused water pump malfunction and flooding.
Still need drinking water? Here’s where you can get it in Richmond, Henrico and Hanover on Friday
As to area residents who have been unable to work this week, Avula said that Richmond will explore state and federal recovery funds that can be used for rental assistance. For instance, many restaurants in Richmond have been closed or had reduced operating hours amid the water boil advisory, leaving many of the area’s food industry workers unable to be paid.
Avula also plans to postpone the next water bill’s due date and more details may be available later concerning rebates for people who lost water access.
In the meantime Richmond, Henrico and Hanover continue to dispense water to people in need at various locations.
*This is a developing story that will be updated
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