Richmond mayor outlines water probe findings, $5 million in repairs and budget pressures
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Mayor Danny Aboular told City Council the HNTB preliminary review links a Jan. 6 power outage to equipment flooding and service disruption, said the city has spent just under $5 million on plant repairs and upgrades, and warned of budget strain ahead of a March 27 budget presentation.
Mayor Danny Aboular said a national consultanthas linked a Jan. 6 power outage to a chain of failures that flooded key equipment at the city's water treatment plant and contributed to service disruption.
"The report did affirm that the power outage early on January 6 started the sequence events," Aboular said, and he told council leadership that a final report from HNTB is expected next month.
Aboular said the city has invested "just under $5,000,000" on equipment repairs and upgrades at the plant, including new uninterruptible power supplies and batteries, and has restored the plant from a winter-mode electrical configuration to a summer-mode setup so both power sources feed the plant rather than relying on an automatic switchover.
"We have restored, summer mode where both electrical sources are feeding the plant," he said. "That automatic switchover was part of the failure that led to all these events." The mayor said many of HNTBrecommendations were already implemented.
Aboular said the city selected HNTB as an independent investigator and emphasized transparency and that the final report will be shared with council leadership once available. He also said the city is in informal conversations with regional partners about a more integrated, resilient water system and will brief council when those talks become substantive.
Council members asked for more detailed breakdowns. Councilwoman Gibson said there remain "many questions that have been left unanswered," asked for clarification about generators and Dominioninvolvement, and urged the administration to publish a clear accounting of the $5 million in repairs.
Aboular said a more detailed presentation by Interim Director Scott Morris is scheduled for the governmental operations committee and that the mayor will present a budget to council on March 27.
Why it matters: The mayor framed the HNTB review as the start of a broader push for operational resilience at the plant and a driver of near-term budget choices. Council members said they want a clear public accounting of repairs and continuing answers from the independent review.
What happens next: The HNTB final report is expected next month; Interim Director Scott Morris will present more detail to the governmental operations committee; the mayor will present a budget on March 27.