Richmond, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) - The City of Richmond has released the preliminary findings of the investigation of last month’s water crisis by an engineering firm hired to handle the probe.
The after-action report, conducted by HNTB Corporation, affirmed that a power outage resulting from a winter storm started a chain reaction that led to the failure and the resulting water crisis. The water treatment plant was ultimately without power for 36 hours.
The report pointed to multiple issues at the plant, including a lack of training procedures or manuals and no access to an emergency operations manual. HNTB outlined a series of initial recommendations to strengthen operations at the plant.
The entire report can be viewed here.
Mayor Danny Avula says the city has already made changes to operations at the water treatment facility.
“Since water service was restored, the city has made a series of changes to plant operations and equipment,” Avula said. “That includes millions of dollars in investments towards the recovery work, much of which has been spent on equipment upgrades and repairs — including new backup power systems.”
Avula said there have also been “meaningful changes to plant procedures, consistent with several HNTB recommendations” after the water crisis.
“The report that has been released is really just a preliminary look at sequencing, like what happened, what was the sequence of events, and then we will have a much more robust report that comes out in a couple of weeks,” Avula said.
This report comes after both Henrico and Hanover counties released their reports about the water crisis this week. Both localities said communication with Richmond was an issue.