RICHMOND, Va. — Days after the Richmond water crisis left thousands in the Richmond region without water, the city announced an interim director of the Department of Public Utilities.
Anthony “Scott” Morris will take the reins from outgoing DPU Director April Bingham.
Bingham resigned on Jan. 15, the city announced.
CBS 6 previously raised questions about Bingham blaming the water crisis solely on a winter storm power outage at the Richmond water treatment plant.
“I think this incident here was simply caused by an outage at the plant," Bingham said during a press conference on the Wednesday following the Monday outage.
Additionally, 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 Bingham more than two years to issue a response detailing how the city would address them.
CBS 6 asked Bingham last Wednesday whether any of the concerns identified by the EPA impacted the January 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.
Watch: Video offers shocking glimpse into flooded Richmond Water Treatment Plant
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."
Who is Scott Morris?
Morris, an engineer and director of water for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, touted his history of working in various water service roles, including previously operating Richmond's wastewater plant.
"I am excited to return to Richmond to lead the Department of Public Utilities,” Morris said. “As the city continues to recover from the recent water service outage at the plant, I look forward to working with the team to support the delivery of essential utility services to Richmonders.”
Morris, a Navy veteran, also worked as director of water at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and with the Chesterfield County Utilities Department.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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