RICHMOND, Va — Richmond City officials have hired an engineering firm to conduct an independent investigation of what led to the recent water crisis that left the city and some surrounding counties without drinkable water for nearly a week.
A contract with the company HNTB was secured Tuesday afternoon. Julian Walker, a spokesperson for Richmond Mayor Danny Avula's Office, said it'll cost $234,000.
A representative of HNTB, Jason Hoff, attended a council committee meeting Wednesday afternoon to answer questions about the scope of the probe.
He said the company is currently in the process of reviewing documentation and that staff will travel to the water treatment plant next week to start reviewing what components failed and which ones recovered, interview plant operators, identify shortcomings, and make recommendations for improvement.
Hoff said preliminary findings could be presented within two weeks, and he expects to conclude that a series of events ultimately caused the water plant failure.
“It's not necessarily due to the fault of one smoking gun or one answer that we'll be able to pinpoint it to," Hoff said. "It's usually multifaceted."
WATCH RELATED COVERAGE: Richmond mayor says he doesn't know whether citywide water crisis could've been prevented
When asked by Councilmember Sarah Abubaker (4th District) whether former Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Director April Bingham, who resigned shortly after the water crisis, would be interviewed as part of the investigation, Hoff said the company did not yet have a list of potential interview subjects and was still "working through details."
Ahead of Wednesday's committee meeting, councilmembers submitted dozens of questions which were shared with the mayor's administration on Friday.
Some of their questions included:
- How often does DPU test redundancies?
- Why did DPU not have a clear understanding of how long the water reserves would last?
- Does DPU do disaster planning?
- What do maintenance records related to the water treatment plant show and was all equipment operational prior to the outage?
Most of their questions were not addressed during Wednesday's meeting, and Councilmember Abubaker asked for a timeline on when they could expect to receive answers.
Megan Field, a representative of the city administration present at Wednesday's meeting, said city staff have been busy with recovery efforts, and she did not yet have the requested responses. However, she said many of the council's questions would be addressed through the after-action report.
“In truth, we won’t be able to move forward and earn the trust of the city if we don’t have a clear, deep dive investigation as to what happened," said Councilmember Kenya Gibson (3rd District).
The new interim DPU Director Scott Morris told the committee that multiple infrastructure repairs were needed at the water treatment plant, and emergency planning and resiliency must be strengthened. But being new to the role, he was unable to provide specific details about those efforts or the associated costs.
Based on Morris' previous experience as a water director at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and past leadership roles with Chesterfield Utilities, Gibson asked him whether Richmond's crisis was unusual.
“How crazy is it that this happened? Have you seen this type of thing happen in other municipalities? How alarmed should the city be that we were without water for a week after a power outage?” Gibson asked.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of concern. I think it brings to the attention improvements that need to be made and the level of interconnectedness between systems," Morris responded. "I think what you need to build on and pay attention to, in this instance, is shoring up your emergency procedures, shoring up your resiliency planning, and making sure that you have a plan in place to react when it does occur, because ultimately, there will be interruptions."
Jason Hoff said he too has seen water disruptions in the past, including one facility on the Ohio River that lost power due to a component failure which led to water pressure issues and a boil advisory. However, Hoff said that incident was "not to the extent" of failure Richmond experienced on January 6.
Meanwhile, Dwayne Roadcap, who oversees public drinking water systems across the state with the Virginia Department of Health, said he had never heard "of a major city being shut down from a power outage at the water treatment plant."
“How would you respond to that question about how crazy it is that this happened?” reporter Tyler Layne asked Roadcap.
“I’ll reaffirm what I said earlier. It was preventable. It shouldn’t have happened. A small amount of snow or storm event should be prepared for. You should have adequate staff on site. You should have your backup power systems tested. If the power remained on at the water treatment plant, this would not have happened. There are ways to make sure that the power stays on," he responded.
Information Roadcap initially gathered following the crisis suggested DPU staff only had three plant operators on site at the time of impact, did not test the backup power systems before the expected winter storm, possibly did not ensure that all backup batteries were operational before the storm, and were unaware of a manual procedure to prevent flooding at the water plant in the event of a power outage.
Roadcap said the state is moving forward with a regulatory investigation, separate from the city's efforts. The health department is also hiring an engineering firm to help complete its probe, which Roadcap expects to be finished by April.
Aside from the ongoing investigations into the water plant failures, the City of Richmond has hired additional consultants with Hagerty to review the city's emergency communications and disaster response plans.
Emergency Preparedness Director Stephen Willoughby told the council committee Wednesday that the city needs to address challenges with its emergency communication system, acknowledging "flaws" with the current system. After the water emergency, Willoughby said the city's "Code Red" mass communication system did not work the way he had hoped and is in need of replacement.
A new communication system is set to be implemented in February.
Additionally, Willoughby said Hagerty will help the city enhance emergency training and exercises, community interaction, and identify potential disaster relief opportunities for those impacted by the water crisis.
That report will cost another $400,000, Willoughby said.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
