Richmond, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) - The City of Richmond has selected an independent contractor to review what went wrong leading up to the water crisis.
As part of a contract valued at $234,000, HNTB Corporation – an infrastructure development firm originally based in Kansas City that has operated for more than 100 years – will investigate the outage with a focus on helping officials identify and understand the root causes of the crisis.
Out of a dozen options, HNTB was selected by Mayor Avula, City Council President Cynthia Newbille and City Council VP Katherine Jordan, according to the city.
The water crisis has been the subject of heavy scrutiny, and Mayor Avula has said he’s committed to answering questions raised by the public in the wake of the outage.
“I am committed to having a thorough investigation into what happened at the water treatment plant last week and bringing HNTB on board is a key step in that process,” Avula said in the release. “As we move forward, my partners on City Council and I will keep the public informed and up to date on the after-action process.”
Richmond's water crisis began the morning of Monday, Jan. 6, when a winter storm-related power issue caused a series of malfunctions at the city's water treatment plant. Residents and businesses in Richmond were left without water for nearly a week. The outage also affected water service in some of the nearby counties.
