‘Penny-wise and pound foolish’: Virginia lawmakers react to Trump cancelling water infrastructure grant a month before system malfunction

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Richmond's recent — now lifted — boil water advisory may be in the past, but it's no secret that it drew attention to the critical need for repairs to the city's water system.

The advisory, which officials launched on Tuesday, May 27, after an operational failure at the city's water treatment facility, sent a ripple effect of chaos across the community.

In 2023, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, awarded Richmond nearly $12 million dollars to improve the city's water infrastructure. Last month, 8News reported on the Trump administration's decision to cancel $12 million in grant money previously awarded to our community. According to the city officials, the money would have gone to strengthening Richmond's water infrastructure.

While the Trump administration has gone on record calling these grants quote "political" and "wasteful," on Thursday, May 29, U.S. Senator Mark Warner pointed out the importance of investing in aging water and sewer systems. It's unclear if the money could have directly prevented Tuesday's malfunction -- had it been distributed prior to being cancelled -- but we do know, in the long-term, Richmond is still looking at millions of dollars in improvements needed.

"This is the kind of pennywise pound foolishness that makes me crazy," Sen. Warner told 8News Thursday morning when asked about FEMA's cuts.

Let's flashback to Tuesday when Richmond Mayor Danny Avula held a press event to address the boil water advisory.

"We had some issues with some increased sedimentation and clogging up our filters," Mayor Avula explained.

This represented the second boil water advisory in less than six months and the city's third critical water system disruption in that same timeframe.

"We have aging water and sewer systems all over Virginia," Sen. Warner said. "If [officials] don't invest in upgrading those systems, this kind of problem is going to happen everywhere around the commonwealth."

The city has blamed Tuesday's incident on sedimentation loads in the James river, but on Wednesday, Joel Paulsen, a Senior Managing Consultant with Engineering Systems Inc. told 8News he believes proper cleaning should have prevented the ordeal from happening.

"This appears to be a lack of maintenance with the sedimentation basin that caused the filters to go down," Paulsen said on Wednesday, while the city continued to attribute the issue to the James River's "sedimentation load." "It seems to be a complete human error, not a mechanical system malfunction."

Later, in a press conference late Thursday afternoon, Richmond leaders confirmed Tuesday's filter-clog stemmed from "delayed maintenance" -- seemingly confirming Paulsen's assessment from Wednesday.

According to Richmond officials, the cancelled federal funding would have gone to repairing the water treatment plant's "feeder channel retaining wall" and improving its pre-sedimentation berms.

"It does seem to me that the water plant needs some significant upgrades and attention to equipment and processes," Paulsen added. "But it also seems to me that there needs to be some attention on, employee expertise, employee responsibilities, and, standard operating procedures."

Richmond Public Utilities officials told 8News the pieces of equipment set to be fixed through the now-cancelled funds quote "Have no connection to the clogged filters." 8News is continuing to dig into this as both concerns revolve around sedimentation loads in the city's water source.

Now, Sen. Warner emphasized how this recent issue further highlights the long-term need for resources and improvements.

"The federal government that cut this relief for the water system in Richmond without any explanation... to me, that's crazy," Sen. Warner commented before adding that he and other lawmakers have already submitted a letter to federal leaders urging them to reconsider their decision.

8News and Paulsen attempted to access Richmond's application for the grant online to see where exactly the money would have been allocated, but due to federal data purging under the Trump administration, the site was no longer available.