RICHMOND, Va. — When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited Richmond's Department of Public Utilities (DPU) with dozens of concerning findings about its water system, it took former DPU Director April Bingham more than two years to issue a response detailing how the city would address them.
A city spokesperson initially said that was because DPU wasn't presented with the findings until August 2024.
The EPA now says that's not the case.
As CBS 6 was first to report last week, the federal regulatory agency completed an inspection of DPU's facilities and operations in July 2022 to determine whether the city was complying with laws in place to promote safe drinking water.
The inspection report stated DPU did "not perform tabletop emergency scenario planning exercises in the event of large-scale power failures" but sometimes participated in the fire department's exercises. It also stated that DPU's emergency response plan had not been updated since 2017 and contained outdated contact information.
WATCH: What past inspections reveal about Richmond's water plant
At the water treatment plant, findings pointed to filters that were out of service with no dates as to when they'd be fixed, cracking in the filter beds, and multiple pumps with significant corrosion.
Regulators also noted that regular maintenance and inspections of filters and finished water facilities were lacking and that documentation of preventative and corrective maintenance of critical inventory was limited.
An EPA spokesperson told CBS 6 the agency did inspect the plant's redundancy system. However, no findings related to that were documented on the report.
"It is EPA’s practice and policy to physically walk through the entire plant and distribution system to understand the drinking water system and compliance with all applicable regulations. As part of the inspection process, EPA examines the system’s resilience and capacity to handle unexpected situations, including but not limited to a loss of power or equipment malfunction," EPA spokesperson Kelly Offner said.
CBS 6 asked Bingham last Wednesday whether any of the concerns identified by EPA impacted the Jan. 6 water crisis at the plant, and she insisted there was no connection.
Though the inspection took place in July 2022, Bingham did not respond to the EPA's findings until Jan. 3, 2025 — just three days before a power outage at the water treatment plant and failing backup systems triggered a citywide water outage and regional boil advisories.
In her response, Bingham highlighted the scale and complexity of the facility but added, “Redundancy is a key feature of our system, ensuring that critical services remain uninterrupted despite the temporary unavailability of certain assets." However, redundancy did not keep critical services operating last week.
Bingham's letter also stated that DPU "rigorously track[s] preventative and corrective maintenance activities."
She acknowledged many of EPA's observations and referenced a "larger [capital improvement plan] project" that would address corrective actions, but a timeline for that project was not included.
Bingham resigned on Jan. 15, according to city officials. Anthony “Scott” Morris, an engineer and director of water for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, has been appointed interim director.
WATCH: Richmond water plant had generators. So why did city plant flood after backup battery lost power?
CBS 6 asked EPA whether there was a delay in the agency reporting its findings to DPU, and a spokesperson said the findings were first verbally communicated to DPU in July 2022 following the onsite inspection. Additionally, EPA said a report containing written findings was transmitted to the city in October 2022.
EPA said state agencies are ultimately responsible for primary enforcement. In this case, that would be the Virginia Department of Health's (VDH) Drinking Water Office.
Dwayne Roadcap, VDH's drinking water director, told CBS 6 his staff reached out to the city in 2024 to check for an update on how it was addressing the findings.
"There were conversations and interactions with the city on those reports, specifically the one from 2022 with the U.S. EPA, and then I guess it was around in October of 2024 our staff reached out in writing, asking for a response in writing about where they were in implementing and responding to the areas of concern in the report," Roadcap said.
WATCH: Video offers shocking glimpse into flooded Richmond Water Treatment Plant
Moving forward, Roadcap said his team is working to strengthen regulatory oversight responsibilities.
"One of the things we're going to be doing is looking at how we inspect plants, how we move forward with those inspections, and how deeply we dive into some of the questions when we observe things and make sure that we're doing our job as robustly as we can," Roadcap said.
Meanwhile, EPA said it is involved in addressing the water crisis that occurred last week and said its 2022 inspection is still not finalized, considering the agency received a response from DPU two weeks ago.
"EPA continues to communicate with DPU and [VDH] regarding outstanding areas of concern and recent drinking water issues. The inspection report is not a final determination of facts or liability. The DPU response that EPA received this month is under review as part of our compliance determination. Until there is a final determination, EPA cannot further comment on the investigation," Offner said.
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