RICHMOND, Va. — The City of Richmond has released its final report on the water crisis, which left thousands of customers without drinkable water for nearly a week in January 2025. Officials have attributed the widespread service disruption to a power failure at the Water Treatment Plant which triggered a series of backup power failures and catastrophic flooding that halted water production.
The final report was completed by the engineering firm HNTB and follows two earlier reports that were released in February and March. The third report reiterated some of the same failures that were already reported including a lack of preparation for an expected winter storm and possible power loss, a lack of staffing, a lack of training, a lack of leadership, and a lack of operating procedures at the Department of Public Utilities' plant.
But the investigation did reveal new information about communication issues during the initial emergency response.
As CBS 6 has previously reported, the first signs of a power failure occurred before 5 a.m. on Jan. 6, and the plant completely lost power shortly before 5:45 a.m.
Watch: Power transfer failure led to 'cascade' of events at Richmond water plant, mayor says
The plant superintendent notified former DPU Director April Bingham about the power loss more than an hour later at 7 a.m.
Bingham then notified her boss, Interim Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg, of the power loss at 7:20 a.m. However, Bingham said she would not mention the power failure during a scheduled 8 a.m. emergency operations meeting.
In these early hours, investigators said there was misinformation going around. Specifically, it was reported by DPU staff up the chain of command that the backup generators were activated at the plant, but they were actually never turned on.
That misinformation created a "false sense of security" among city and regional officials, according to the report. Investigators concluded it was "unclear" where the misinformation came from.
At 10 a.m., the plant superintendent told Bingham that there may be a service disruption and to start considering a boil water advisory.
Bingham relayed that information to Joy-Hogg at 10:30 a.m.
Joy-Hogg then set up a meeting with Mayor Danny Avula, Bingham, and the Department of Emergency Communications director for hours later at 1 p.m. It wasn't until that meeting that Mayor Avula realized the severity of the emergency.
After that meeting, Joy-Hogg began alerting county partners about the issues at the water treatment plant.
While Chesterfield and Henrico Counties were notified about power issues at the plant earlier that morning, it wasn't until the afternoon that Hanover, Henrico, and Chesterfield all became aware of the severity of the situation.
The counties reported that Richmond "minimized" the impacts of the power outage and left them with little time to prepare for a service disruption.
A boil water advisory was not issued until 4:30 p.m.
The report also noted that staff members reported "long delays" in the implementation of capital projects.
One of the most significant examples of this was when DPU put out solicitations for bids to complete much needed electrical upgrades between 2016 and 2022. The project would have replaced the switchgear component that was responsible for triggering the series of power failures at the plant. However, the project was never completed by 2025.
According to the report, it was not within the scope of HNTB's investigation to figure out why that project was delayed multiple times.
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