RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Danny Avula announced Friday that more details will soon be available following the release of a preliminary action report investigating the failure of the Richmond water plant facility in January.
"We found HNTB, a national firm with offices all over the country, to come in and to kind of take a new and fresh look at the events that led to where we are," Avula said. "This is a preliminary report. We have more information forthcoming, and that will also be shared publicly when it becomes available."
Scott Morris, the newly appointed Richmond Director of Public Utilities, indicated that future reports might examine past audits of the water plant.
He emphasized that the city is currently focused on optimizing the substantial investments being made into the system.
"The things that we put in place right now are to move forward with improved maintenance, improve training coordination through our staff, making sure that the infrastructure we have is adequate to sustain the operations," Morris said. "Those in and of itself have already been implemented."
Morris added that standard operating procedures at the plant are being revived and that the process is expected to be fully implemented within a few months.
Hanover and Henrico counties have shown interest in pursuing regional cooperation and becoming more self-reliant with their own water supplies.
Avula expressed support for these counties' investments but stressed the importance of strengthening the city's existing water infrastructure.
"It has the capacity to produce 132 million gallons, and to try to do that by building new infrastructure elsewhere would be a significant expense. I mean, we're talking north of a billion dollars to try to replicate that now," Avula said. "We do need to make investments in the current plants to be able to make sure that it can keep that production capacity moving forward. And I think that should absolutely be something that we consider regional investment in since it is a regional asset."
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
