[{"_1":2,"_87":-5,"_88":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},"mediaId",6520490,"mediaKeyId","5329460-8870349e4e0a07aa9793eac28c5bca95","parentId",5329460,"title","Richmond officials report progress under water consent order; 82% of recommendations complete, staff outlines next steps","audioSeconds",854,"startMs",186555,"endMs",1040930,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=5329460-8870349e4e0a07aa9793eac28c5bca95&start=186&end=1040","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5329460-8870349e4e0a07aa9793eac28c5bca95/thumbnail_186555.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6520490/Richmond-City-Independent-City/Virginia/Richmond-officials-report-progress-under-water-consent-order-82-of-recommendations-complete-staff-outlines-next-steps","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6520490-f4e0cdd372dcb1f9814eb4c05faa53b2/orig.mp4?Expires=1770755552&Signature=NkMAIusse1RDb1-icOEZj6WFcwUiM2iH2Kv8kcMgIKLwFERkrkyA81lu~7rVoiZAglyvw1CKJnZ8aA~JRSCKO9QNorInnqpfIzxxO34y8ht5OaCugvxiiCSSooqWUiMOx~xELaiBYNOHho2PBuwdEadU3~ce8Dic7aL36fmah7IpNZMITFVEeLKNnNCaCrH2O7ti9tDuaLMIGwC7~Z0qBotoq4cy2VMz8kWxQBhpTABZTjYO9fodsWBwpjEH7d9dr68alpbE3hl3kUbgVkN0VZzyZjDHCbQLp46kqEfPRKhyw0Hq0phLNmxTfUcZWRtuuuAEpC5e7wr2sAoyTZmw8g__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Richmond City","date","2025-07-07T00:00:00Z","article","Scott Morris, director of the Department of Public Utilities, told the Richmond City Council Organizational Development Standing Committee on June 23 that a Virginia Department of Health consent order taking effect June 28, 2025, formalizes corrective work at the city’s water treatment plant and sets multiple near-term reporting deadlines.

\"The effective date of the consent order is 06/28/2025,\" Morris said. \"It acknowledges all the corrective actions we've taken to date, which is about 155 actions. It imposes a civil charge of $6,817 and then the consent order itself resolves any alleged violations that are identified in that section.\"

Morris said Appendix A of the consent order lists roughly 230 total recommendations drawn from the city’s sanitary survey, EPA’s 2022 inspection report, the Virginia Department of Health (BDH) April 2025 inspection, and consultant reports by HNTB and SEH. He said about 82% of those items are complete and that weekly updates are produced on remaining items. \"There's gonna get to a point where a lot of these are related to the capital improvement plan projects that we have,\" Morris said.

Why it matters: the consent order creates near-term compliance deadlines and formal reporting to BDH Richmond field office; it also ties remaining items to capital projects that will take longer to complete.

On timing and reporting, Morris said some deliverables are due within 120 days of the effective date and the first required quarterly sanitary-survey progress report will be due Oct. 10, 2025. He said the city will post milestone tracking on the utilities website rather than every single item in the long appendix.

Morris outlined operational and customer-facing changes the Department of Public Utilities has implemented or scheduled: removal of the convenience fee for card payments effective June 30, 2025; an increase in the credit-card charge threshold from $500 to $1,000 to reduce duplicate charges; and a streamlined billing-exceptions process. He said billing exceptions have dropped from about 10,000 for the June 2024–May 2025 period to roughly 2,800–2,875 outstanding exceptions in June 2025, with a daily generation rate of about 500 exceptions and a processing team of roughly 16 staff.

On meters and metering systems, Morris described a multi-year upgrade. \"We are currently going through a meter upgrade project, where we're about 41,000 meters that are near their expected life,\" he said. \"We've completed 9,000 of those. There exists about 70,000 meters holistically in the system.\" He said future state plans call for replacing about 7% of meters annually once the current push finishes and for an AMR/portal rollout for customers in early 2026.

Council members asked for clarity on deadlines and regional coordination. Council member Bridal asked when the 120-day deadlines fall due; Morris replied those are measured from the June 28 effective date. \"We'll probably update the website to kind of track this along with the HNTB report,\" he said.

Council member Jordan asked about regional readiness and mutual aid during events such as boil-water advisories. Morris said DPU directors typically initiate calls among regional partners during emergencies and that mutual support often comes from shared parts inventories and ad hoc resource sharing. \"Usually what happens in this scenario is that DPU directors initiate either a call between these partners to offer up assistance or discuss the ongoing issues,\" he said. He added that the city meets quarterly with regional DPU directors and engages more frequently during emergencies.

Council member Lynch thanked Morris for an on-site briefing at the treatment plant and for the progress responding to BDH citations. Morris indicated additional reports and updates will come to council as work continues.

The presentation was informational; the committee took no action on the water items during the public portion of the meeting. The committee previously voted to continue an unrelated civilian-review-board appointment item and a resolution (see separate votes summary).","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Richmond City - Organizational Development Standing Committee on 2025-07-07 4:00 PM - Microsoft Teams access info: https://go.rva.gov/July2025OD or dial *67-804-316-9457 and enter ID:228 300 003 204 4 - Jul 07, 2025","oneSentenceSummary","Scott Morris, director of the Department of Public Utilities, told the Richmond City Council Organizational Development Standing Committee on June 23 that a Virginia Department of Health consent order taking effect June 28, 2025, formalizes corrective work at the city’s water treatment plant and sets multiple near-term reporting deadlines.","taxTitle","Richmond City (Independent City), Virginia","taxId",5755,"location","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6520487,"Independent Hagerty review urges formalized plans, training and a citywide preparedness framework after Richmond water incidents",2283,1048010,3331160,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5329460-8870349e4e0a07aa9793eac28c5bca95&start=1048&end=3331","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5329460-8870349e4e0a07aa9793eac28c5bca95/thumbnail_1048010.jpg","/articles/6520487/Richmond-City-Independent-City/Virginia/Independent-Hagerty-review-urges-formalized-plans-training-and-a-citywide-preparedness-framework-after-Richmond-water-incidents","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6520487-f3b32183aea9abc860b474b104cad539/orig.mp4?Expires=1770755552&Signature=hYSYuPdFiEPrNtvCE56-5TsvSf2uaLQ7LaFgqVP3SF6DDWYDfMfcxLmzqm5BNS95WTUyKKL5Hq5ibwsK3Tgg3TgZi1bpQGUROYVCVdFlamTFBBYXapWlrGrqkg0HcUiMzq950zhouK9JpX-pm2SfG8sf1VoJ4jIrs0ds-6FalI25FoCnHuDBxgiYw7LShfkz-71oV-VbZ28XQAI0dh4gRGdHvnmeqiCeghhbZEGgEq6Ra2luEWdnyMBiTHXozke1Fkjd9ASQNX9MKxrpUeHKyzoOxTogFpDAMLxzKnU1Z6tKcgn5FTp1hEQYFCnr8wYAcdih5LfBeXJ75wcqd8tTtg__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Stephen Willoughby, director of emergency communications, preparedness and response, introduced Hagerty Consulting’s independent incident-response assessment to the Organizational Development Standing Committee on June 23, saying the firm was engaged early after the city’s January water crisis.

\"We asked Hagerty to perform an independent assessment and an after action review of the city's response to this crisis,\" Willoughby said. \"They have spent months observing, performing document review, conducting interviews with individuals both internally and externally that were involved in the response, collecting and fact checking observations.\"

Aymah Marino Mazza, Hagerty project manager, and Jaisa Rogers, preparedness planning specialist, summarized the review. Marino Mazza said the consulting team engaged up to 88 stakeholders, conducted 57 interviews, ran surveys and completed a document review. The team produced 72–74 targeted recommendations aligned to FEMA core capabilities and organized them so the city can prioritize improvements.

\"The ultimate goal really is to provide a document that is of use to the city,\" Marino Mazza said. \"We developed 74 targeted recommendations…we understand that these recommendations cannot be carried out overnight.\"

Key findings and recommendations Hagerty highlighted included: updating the emergency operations plan and point-of-distribution (POD) plans; creating a citywide integrated preparedness plan and a timeline for mandatory trainings and exercises; clarifying roles, command structures and staffing shifts in operational coordination; and establishing formal public-information protocols, including a joint information center for coordinated messaging with regional partners.

Hagerty and city staff told the committee some recommendations are already underway. Jaisa Rogers said the city has implemented and tested a new emergency notification system — marketed as Richmond Ready and powered by Everbridge — and that the city has enhanced policies around Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for mass notifications. Rogers also said the city has completed recommendations related to a citywide recovery framework and cost-tracking mechanisms.

Council members raised questions about stakeholder outreach, prioritization and costs. Council member Lynch asked whether Hagerty had developed a detailed phone-tree list of whom to notify (restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.). Marino Mazza replied that the report recommends the city build a crisis communications plan that will include such a list because the required stakeholders can vary by incident.

Council member Gibson asked when Richmond Ready testing occurred and whether the city now has the infrastructure to use WEA for future boil-water advisories. Willoughby said Richmond Ready had been tested and that the city has implemented policy changes to make WEA the default for future boil-water advisories. \"In May, that information only went out via Richmond Ready. I have since put in place the policy that any future boil water advisories, we will use the WEA option,\" Willoughby said.

On costs, Council member Gibson cited an earlier departmental summary that placed total incident-related costs at about $6.465 million, with roughly $1.2 million to consultants. City staff said the figures the council received included encumbered, projected and not-yet-finalized amounts; some costs may be covered by insurance and some may be eligible for state or federal reimbursement, but the city determined at the time that thresholds for federal assistance were not met.

Willoughby said the city will treat the report as a work plan: the Office of Emergency Management will post the recommendations on the city website and create a tracker for progress. He said the city will begin work on an integrated preparedness plan within 30 days and start updates to the emergency operations plan in roughly 60–90 days.

The committee heard the report and engaged in a question-and-answer session; Hagerty’s recommendations will guide follow-up work and periodic progress updates to council.","Hagerty Consulting presented an independent incident-response assessment based on interviews and document review; report includes 72–74 targeted recommendations aligned to FEMA core capabilities, calls for an integrated preparedness plan, mandatory training, and enhancements to public notification systems (Richmond Ready/Everbridge).","actionData","errors"]

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Richmond officials report progress under water consent order; 82% of recommendations complete, staff outlines next steps

Independent Hagerty review urges formalized plans, training and a citywide preparedness framework after Richmond water incidents