RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond's new Director of Public Utilities says the department is prioritizing transparency as it works to make changes at its Water Treatment Plant (WTP), following the January 6 water crisis that left thousands of people without clean water.
DPU Director Scott Morris presented the most recent findings from an updated after-action assessment report by HNTB, released last Thursday, to the city council on Monday.
The report found that a key piece of equipment malfunctioned during a brief power outage, causing serious flooding at the WTP. Backup alternatives were not properly prepped and did not work properly. The investigation said the mechanical failures were "compounded by a lack of planning and communication."
Council members asked if there would be a deeper investigation into communication issues, both internally and externally, before January 6 that could have contributed to city officials not knowing about the severity of that day's outage.
A representative with HNTB said it could take years to determine where a breakdown of communication expectations actually began.
Others asked about DPU's budget, including how it intended to spend a planned $5 million for mechanical upgrades and how its budget may change with a push to improve staffing and training.
Morris said the $5 million would cover a "vast majority" of costs for quick and necessary replacements. He also indicated that DPU's organizational chart would be reevaluated to meet staffing and training needs.
"There's an urgent need to keep rates as low as possible, so we're going to have to figure out how to make changes while minimizing changes," Morris said.
Morris also indicated that there would be updated Standards of Practice that would be shared across staff at the Water Treatment Plant, noting that if staffing had been trained at an appropriate level prior to January 6, that the outage at the plant would have been prevented.
The city is also waiting on a separate assessment from a different consulting agency that is expected to be completed by May 9.
A city spokesperson said those findings will be made public once that is finished.
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