RICHMOND, Va. — Electrical equipment at the Richmond Water Treatment Plant was already described as "obsolete" and potentially unreliable more than a decade ago, according to documents obtained by CBS 6 through a Freedom of Information Act request, but replacements and upgrades had still not been finished before last month's water crisis.
When water production halted in Richmond on Jan. 6, 2025, due to a power outage at the plant and backup power systems that failed, the age and condition of the facility became a talking point among city officials.
“The plant is 100 years old. We have aging infrastructure," said former Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Director April Bingham at a press conference just a couple days after the crisis began.
At that same press conference, Mayor Danny Avula also said that "aging equipment certainly" contributed to the crisis.
But as CBS 6 learned by requesting and examining public records, risks associated with power equipment have been well documented for many years.
"That was a bit enlightening," professional engineer Joel Paulsen said after reviewing the documents. “There were multiple indications that these components needed to be replaced over the last 10 years.”
A study of the facility's main electrical service components by engineering consultants, completed in 2012, showed the equipment at the time was already about 34 years old and had "reached the end of its useful life as reliable and safe equipment."
The report, which was prepared by Shah and Associates on behalf of WRA, described the equipment in "fair condition" with "visible corrosion" but "no signs of serious deterioration."
However, the assessment referred to the equipment as "obsolete" and stated, "maintenance replacement of the equipment is highly recommended."
Paulsen, who is not affiliated with the city and has 20 years of experience designing water systems for municipalities, described the findings of the report as "critical."
“A component such as this being identified as obsolete and in need of immediate repair should have been replaced in 2012 when it was flagged," Paulsen said.
The city redacted information in the report that would have revealed the exact components identified for upgrades, citing the need to protect critical infrastructure information; however, the report generally lists a transformer, circuit breaker, and switch as needing replacement.
But publicly available procurement records more clearly detailed the work that needed to be done. Between 2016 and 2021, Richmond put out at least five solicitations for contractors to bid on an electrical equipment replacement project — a project that directly stemmed from the 2012 report.
The procurement documents stated the "deteriorating condition of the aged equipment and decreasing reliability" led the city to commission the 2012 assessment, and from that study, the replacement project was designed.
According to solicitations, the project included automating a backup generator. But we know the generator was still manual at the time of the January 2025 crisis and that DPU staff never turned it on in the midst of responding to the power outage.
"Industry standard in today's world is to have everything automatic," Paulsen said. "You don't want any interruption to your power supplies."
The project also included modifying the switchgear, which is the asset that should have transferred electricity from the facility's primary power source to a secondary source when the power outage occurred. Mayor Avula has previously acknowledged the switchgear did not work as it should've, and he blamed that failure for sparking the "cascade of events" that led to the catastrophe.
“The failure of our switch is on our side, and so I think that switch may be part of the infrastructure that we’ll obviously need to replace," Avula said in a press conference on January 8.
Paulsen argued it shouldn't have taken a crisis to replace the switch, as the city was already aware it needed to be upgraded.
CBS 6 also obtained a more recent condition assessment of the facility that was completed by WRA in 2020. The assessment found 93 electrical assets at the water treatment plant with a high probability of failure.
The city redacted information that would've identified those specific components, but the report does state that the switchgear building and substation, which contains the electrical equipment, were found to be in "poor condition."
The report separated the plant's assets by category and found the electrical items were rated to be in the poorest condition out of all asset classes. The assessment identified $1.5 million in deferred maintenance for electrical equipment when the cost to fully replace all electrical assets totaled $6.2 million.
Fifty assets at the plant were identified as needing immediate replacement within the next one to two years, and 19 of those items belonged to the electrical category.
"So would you say that condition assessment should have really set off alarm bells for DPU?" reporter Tyler Layne asked.
"Absolutely," Paulsen said.
CBS 6 asked the city what steps it took in response to these two critical reports, and the mayor's spokesperson Julian Walker said a contract was secured in late 2022 for electrical upgrades. However, it's unclear when the physical work actually began or if it was initiated before 2025.
Due to the technical requirements of the project, Walker said the vendor had to spend time "determining necessary specifications, obtaining parts, and on fabrication work." For example, he said a custom-build process was required for a new transformer, and that process is currently underway and will be completed in May.
As to what happened with those earlier solicitations that the city began posting in 2016, Walker said the city did not receive any bids "within range of the project budget at the time."
Walker added that the "backup power equipment that faltered during last month’s outage has been replaced."
Paulsen believes the city should've acted when it was first warned of the equipment's condition nearly 13 years ago.
“Bottom line, this whole crisis could have been averted. This was not an act of God. This was a mismanagement of the system and deferred maintenance is what led to this problem," Paulsen said. "Through my career, I've never really seen a disaster like this at a water plant before. Usually when things go wrong, they're immediately fixed, and you don't lose full capacity and control of your water plants."
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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