RICHMOND, Va. — The City of Richmond released a preliminary third-party report Thursday on what led to January's water crisis.
The after-action report, which had been promised by Mayor Danny Avula and other city officials since the early days of the crisis, was conducted by the engineering and infrastructure firm HNTB Corporation. It is a 15-page summary of the initial phase of the after-action review.
It is based on available records, data and interviews with 14 DPU staff members. The former DPU Director, April Bingham, was not interviewed.
Some of the findings and recommendations in the report:
- The DPU should develop severe storm event response protocols that require maintenance staff on call during storm events to respond within 30 minutes or less.
- According to the report, there are no established training procedures or written training manuals at the plant. There is also a lack of established written standard operating procedures for typical plant operations and for emergency operations.
- DPU should install a variety of backup batteries, also known as Uninterrupted Power Supplies, that can last for at least an hour. One of those should be attached to the IT system. According to this after-action summary, when the plant lost power at 5:50 a.m., the IT system lost power at the same time.
- The report also recommends providing an automatic transfer system for the existing backup generator system. It states that this is understood to be part of a current capital project.
- There is no mention of the use of a generator during the time frame when power was out at the plant. An engineering expert we’ve talked to since the beginning of the crisis has consistently said that emergency generators should have automatically turned on, or at the very least manually, when power went out at the plant.
- The loss of power occurred because the switchgear failed to automatically transfer power from the power source that went out to a second power feed that still had power.
Henrico County Report
Henrico County released its own after-action report Tuesday on January's regional water crisis, as well as a study evaluating the East End's current water supply and exploring options to mitigate future disruptions.
The report, which was put together in less than 30 days by AquaLaw PLC, provides a timeline of actions taken by the Henrico DPU during the crisis.
The report revealed that Henrico leaders were unaware of the severity of Richmond's plant failure for approximately seven hours after initial notification on Monday, January 6.
Upon notification, Henrico said it quickly dispatched crews and launched a regional recovery plan, stepping beyond its existing agreement that places responsibility of the facility on the city of Richmond.
Looking forward, the Henrico Board of Supervisors is contemplating their next steps: whether to continue relying on Richmond or to develop an independent water source for the county.
Watch: Henrico may address its own needs after Richmond water crisis: 'We can't let this happen again'
Hanover County Report
Hanover County released a report Wednesday indicating that county officials were also left uninformed about the issues at Richmond's water plant for more than seven hours.
Watch: Hanover County was not notified of Richmond water crisis for more than 7 hours
This delay resulted in residents of the Mechanicsville district experiencing a full day without water, followed by several days on a boil water advisory.
The report emphasized that notification should have been immediate, as Hanover relies heavily on Richmond for its water supply. The failure to communicate the severity of the situation impacted the county’s ability to act swiftly.
This story will be updated as CBS 6 reporters look into the report. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
