RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Danny Avula is responding to inquiries about the preliminary nature of the Richmond water report released Thursday. The report is notably less comprehensive than the report neighboring localities did individually.
Avula acknowledged its limited scope compared to more comprehensive reports released by Henrico and Hanover counties earlier this week.
“Yeah, you know, the report is just a very preliminary report," Avula said. "The reason our reporting has taken longer is that we committed to having an independent review, someone without a pre-existing relationship with the city. Henrico, for example, used WRA, a firm that has had a longstanding involvement with their water treatment operations.”
Avula said that Richmond’s report serves as an initial look into the sequence of events and that a more detailed analysis would be forthcoming.
The report does not address certain critical issues, such as the city's public communication during the crisis, why backup generators weren't manually activated to maintain power at the plant, or whether DPU personnel tested backup power systems before the winter storm—a claim that the Virginia Department of Health has suggested likely did not occur. The report does not also address concerns raised regarding a lack of communication with the public and regional localities like Henrico and Hanover counties which depend on Richmond for their water supply.
The report notably did not interview former Department of Public Utilities Director April Bingham, who was present during the event and instrumental in the response effort.
The 15-page report, made available Thursday, summarizes findings from third-party firms that investigated the situation, which had widespread regional impacts.
The report corroborates earlier reporting by CBS 6, indicating that a loss of power at the city's water plant was due to switchgear failure. This failure prevented the automatic transfer of power from an outage source to a secondary power feed, which remained operational. Additionally, the report notes that the backup battery meant to close the valves failed, resulting in flooding.
Further inquiry into the DPU staff interviews did not clarify whether the backup battery functioned as intended.
According to the report, the IT system at the plant lost power at 5:50 a.m. the same moment the plant’s power was cut, and it states that backup generators must be manually activated. However, the report does not mention if a generator was employed during the outage.
Engineering experts told CBS 6 that a backup generator should have either automatically engaged or been activated manually when the initial power loss occurred.
The evaluation highlighted a significant gap in training procedures, revealing that the plant lacks established written standard operating procedures for both routine and emergency operations.
The report issued several recommendations to improve future responses, including:
- Developing severe storm response protocols requiring maintenance staff to be on-call and ready to respond within 30 minutes during storm events.
- Installing a range of backup batteries, or Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS), capable of lasting at least one hour, with one battery linked to the IT system.
- Providing an automatic transfer system for the existing backup generator system, which is currently part of a capital project.
The city plans to make both the mayor and the new DPU director available for in-depth questioning regarding the report on Friday morning. CBS 6 will continue its investigation and seek answers to lingering questions surrounding the crisis.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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