‘Simply put, we didn’t know’: Health department says Richmond’s DPU put off water system troubles until it was too late

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Showing images of a dead eel near Richmond's water supply and makeshift parts and debris floating throughout the system, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) released its report breaking down the state of Richmond's water system and what caused its devastating failure in January.

The report included more than 300 pages of details, but a glaring hallmark of the findings rested in VDH's assertion that January's water crisis was entirely preventable and that Richmond's Department of Public Utilities (DPU) had known about its water system's shortcomings for decades.

VDH's Office of Drinking Water Director Dwayne Roadcap spoke with the media Thursday afternoon -- shortly after the agency released the report publicly and Governor Glenn Youngkin's office opted to release the report early.

8News asked Roadcap about the health department's familiarity with the Richmond water treatment facility's troublesome operational outlook.

"Simply put, we didn't know," Roadcap said. "We didn't know about it. We learned about it during the water crisis investigation."

Therefore, the health department appears to be rethinking its blind trust in the DPU after finding January's water crisis -- although catalyzed by Central Virginia's severe snowstorm -- was entirely preventable. Roadcap and his team outlined three core errors within the system's foundation that contributed to the crisis.

"A complacent and reactive culture… whereby problems and known risks were not addressed," Roadcap cited as one of those critical errors.

VDH said, based on its findings, it's clear the city had known about issues with its water treatment facility for decades. To quote the report directly, leading engineers said DPU staff "accepted substandard conditions as normal." They essentially put off any proactive fixes until it was too late.

Roadcap added that the water crisis could have happened in 2020 or 2021. The water system's vulnerability was simply tested -- and tabled -- time and time again.

"If there were better operational decisions over the decades, then the water crisis would not have happened," Roadcap said.

A second critical error the health department's report -- which was led by a third-party engineering team -- highlighted was that the DPU operated the water system in a cost-saving "winter mode." This basically limits operational safeguards, which made the system increasingly vulnerable to factors like severe weather.

The report also found that the treatment facility relied too heavily on manual operation, particularly in an under-trained and under-staffed facility.

It's been a battle of accountability with agencies pointing fingers in all sorts of directions. Roadcap admitted the Department of Health conducts a thorough investigation into the water system every three years -- last investigating the facility in 2022 in a tag-team report with the Environmental Protection Agency.

8News previously covered this scathing report, which flagged a series of concerns by the two regulatory agencies that went ignored by the city's DPU.

8News asked Roadcap why his team did not flag the urgency of these concerns since they conducted a thorough investigation into the system.

"I can't go back in time and say that we should have caught something that we didn't know existed," Roadcap said. "I'm saying that it might have existed, but we didn't see it."

Roadcap elaborated and clarified that, as far as the chain of command goes, the responsibility to report issues still ultimately falls on the city.

VDH said Richmond officials are listening and have already made significant adjustments based on the department's needs assessment and recommendations moving forward.

City employees have reportedly already switched Richmond's water treatment plant to summer mode, updated failure plans and more. For a comprehensive, point-by-point look at the city's action plan and progress based on its after-action report, visit the City of Richmond's website.

The city has 45 days to come up with a timeline and plan to address the health department's concerns.

The health department is also making some changes to how it conducts its triennial investigations.

"One of the things that we're revisiting is how we do our inspections and the questions we ask," Roadcap said. "I think going forward, what our team is learning is we need to go another level. Don't accept it at face value."

As for the dead eel found near the water supply and the rust in the infrastructure, it's important to remember officials test Richmond's water quality frequently, so residents should not be scared to drink the water.

If you are receiving water, it has passed safety tests. The concerns outlined in these recent reports are about the system's long-term foundational issues.