One Year After Water Crisis: Richmond leaders point to culture change at treatment plant

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — One year after a widespread water system failure, 8News is taking a look at the culture change Richmond Mayor Danny Avula promised.

In a sit-down interview with Avula on Dec. 23, 2025, he said problems in leadership, training and accountability played a major role in the crisis, which occurred just days into his first term and affected hundreds of thousands of Central Virginians.

“Part of what contributed to last January’s events was complacency that sets in when things have gone really well and you haven’t had big emergencies in years,” Avula said.

Since the crisis, the city has launched an overhaul of cultural practices at the treatment plant. Weeks after the crisis, the city fired former Department of Public Utilities Director April Bingham following revelations from a 2022 state and federal investigation that found widespread, unaddressed failures, including a lack of emergency preparedness training.

Avula said the department’s leadership has since been rebuilt with experienced professionals.

“We now have, in top leadership in the Department of Public Utilities, five different professional engineers, with over 140 years of engineering experience overseeing that department,” he said.

Avula said the treatment plant now has an entirely new executive and frontline team after it was revealed the previous staff was not adequately prepared for emergency situations. He rated his team’s response to the inherited crisis as a “10 out of 10.”

“Nothing is 100%,” Avula said. “But we have made significant investments in equipment, in leadership, and in really changing the culture of emergency responsiveness.”

Scott Morris, who was hired as the new DPU director, said the department has implemented 54 new standard operating procedures and increased leadership presence at the plant.

This includes hiring Tony Singh, a former senior deputy from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Virginia Department of Health (VDH) employee. There’s also Jeff McBride, the former director of the Water Administration and a professional engineer.

“There’s a high threshold of accountability now,” Morris said. “Staff have done an exceptional job making sure we’re committed to correcting any issues we find.”

Morris said he is confident the city is better prepared for future emergencies and committed to keeping residents informed if issues arise.

Richmond’s Ninth District City Councilmember Nicole Jones said the current administration has done an exceptional job steering the city in the right direction.

“They were responsive and very particular,” Jones said, adding that transparency has been key to rebuilding confidence. “The more people are informed, the more they understand how city government works.”

As part of increased transparency, the city launched an online public records library in April containing documents related to the water crisis.