VDH says Richmond is not capable of reliably providing citizens with water
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) does not believe that the city of Richmond is capable of ensuring its citizens have reliable access to clean water. That's as of a Jan. 16 "Notice of Alleged Violation" issued against the city of Richmond and the involved water treatment plant by the VDH's Office of Drinking Water (ODW), which details allegations of failures to heed the state's Waterworks Regulations. This all started after Richmond's water treatment plant went dark during the first winter storm of 2025. Citizens throughout the Richmond area -- including the counties of Henrico, Hanover and Goochland -- had little or no water for days, sending shockwaves that hit residents, businesses, medical facilities, sports teams, the state's government and more. In the wake of this crisis, several questions have been raised by both everyday people and regulatory agencies, all wondering how something like this could have happened. This notice is the result of the VDH's initial look into what went wrong. 8News has obtained the ODW's notice, which details the observations VDH staffers made between Jan. 6 and 11 while at the water treatment plant, aiding in crisis response -- and the two violations that they reportedly observed. These findings led the ODW to claim that Richmond has "demonstrated that it does not have sufficient, proven capabilities to support its customers, businesses and healthcare facilities." MORE: Office of Drinking Water learned of power outage at Richmond water treatment plant nearly 9 hours later "ODW asserts that the water crisis should never have happened and was completelyavoidable," the office said in the notice. "The City of Richmond could have prevented the crisis with better preparation, by verifying critical equipment was functional before the storm event, ensuring sufficient staffing was physically present at the WTP in the event of a power outage and making sure staff present at the WTP during the storm event had appropriate training to effectively respond to the temporary power outage." Richmond must take several corrective actions outlined by the VDH to resolve these violations, according to the notice. Failure to do so could result in a variety of penalties, including losing its license to operate a waterworks. The VDH added that it intends to hire an investigative firm to look into Richmond's water treatment plant. According to procurement documents, which were included alongside the ODW's notice, the selected firm is to begin investigating by early February and finish no later than April 7. The firm will be asked to consider the findings included in a 2022 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspection of Richmond's water system, which found it to be crumbling, broken down and filthy at the time. RELATED: Five concerning truths about Richmond’s public water system: 2022 EPA report Many of the items the ODW would like the chosen firm to investigate were also concerns identified in the EPA report. An overview of what happened at the plant To understand why the water crisis happened, it’s important to understand critical parts of how Richmond’s water treatment facility works. As previously explained by Mayor Danny Avula, the water treatment plant has two power sources, which are supplied by Dominion Energy. If one fails, Avula said the other one is meant to automatically take over to minimize — or even eliminate — disruption to water service. Additionally, the plant has backup batteries. According to Avula, they are meant to provide short-term power in the event of an emergency and are capable of supporting 50 million gallons of water service a day — which is the city’s average wintertime consumption — when fully functional. At the time of the power outage, three waterworks employees were at the plant, according to the VDH. The city previously told 8News that 3 to 4 employees is typical staffing. PREVIOUS: ‘We don’t have the answers,’ Water crisis in Central Virginia leaves residents and businesses struggling The outage occurred at about 6 a.m. on Monday, with the active power source going down. For reasons not yet known, the automatic switch did not occur, according to Avula. While it could be switched manually, the three operators on hand either failed to do so or just didn't know how. The on-call electrician arrived and manually switched the power source, restoring power by about 7 a.m. Monday, according to Avula. However, those backup batteries had only lasted 45 minutes -- meaning the plant was without power for at least 15 minutes. While this was happening, the plant was also flooding with water from the James River. According to the VDH, the three operators "did not or could not manually operate valves to prevent the flooding event" after the "other backup systems did not function as needed to prevent" it. The VDH previously told 8News that they should have known how to do this. Avula previously told 8News that this flooding was
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) does not believe that the city of Richmond is capable of ensuring its citizens have reliable access to clean water.
That's as of a Jan. 16 "Notice of Alleged Violation" issued against the city of Richmond and the involved water treatment plant by the VDH's Office of Drinking Water (ODW), which details allegations of failures to heed the state's Waterworks Regulations.
This all started after Richmond's water treatment plant went dark during the first winter storm of 2025. Citizens throughout the Richmond area -- including the counties of Henrico, Hanover and Goochland -- had little or no water for days, sending shockwaves that hit residents, businesses, medical facilities, sports teams, the state's government and more.
In the wake of this crisis, several questions have been raised by both everyday people and regulatory agencies, all wondering how something like this could have happened. This notice is the result of the VDH's initial look into what went wrong.
8News has obtained the ODW's notice, which details the observations VDH staffers made between Jan. 6 and 11 while at the water treatment plant, aiding in crisis response -- and the two violations that they reportedly observed.
These findings led the ODW to claim that Richmond has "demonstrated that it does not have sufficient, proven capabilities to support its customers, businesses and healthcare facilities."
"ODW asserts that the water crisis should never have happened and was completely
avoidable," the office said in the notice. "The City of Richmond could have prevented the crisis with better preparation, by verifying critical equipment was functional before the storm event, ensuring sufficient staffing was physically present at the WTP in the event of a power outage and making sure staff present at the WTP during the storm event had appropriate training to effectively respond to the temporary power outage."
Richmond must take several corrective actions outlined by the VDH to resolve these violations, according to the notice. Failure to do so could result in a variety of penalties, including losing its license to operate a waterworks.
The VDH added that it intends to hire an investigative firm to look into Richmond's water treatment plant.
According to procurement documents, which were included alongside the ODW's notice, the selected firm is to begin investigating by early February and finish no later than April 7.
The firm will be asked to consider the findings included in a 2022 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspection of Richmond's water system, which found it to be crumbling, broken down and filthy at the time.
RELATED: Five concerning truths about Richmond’s public water system: 2022 EPA report
Many of the items the ODW would like the chosen firm to investigate were also concerns identified in the EPA report.
An overview of what happened at the plant
To understand why the water crisis happened, it’s important to understand critical parts of how Richmond’s water treatment facility works.
As previously explained by Mayor Danny Avula, the water treatment plant has two power sources, which are supplied by Dominion Energy. If one fails, Avula said the other one is meant to automatically take over to minimize — or even eliminate — disruption to water service.
Additionally, the plant has backup batteries. According to Avula, they are meant to provide short-term power in the event of an emergency and are capable of supporting 50 million gallons of water service a day — which is the city’s average wintertime consumption — when fully functional.
At the time of the power outage, three waterworks employees were at the plant, according to the VDH. The city previously told 8News that 3 to 4 employees is typical staffing.
The outage occurred at about 6 a.m. on Monday, with the active power source going down. For reasons not yet known, the automatic switch did not occur, according to Avula. While it could be switched manually, the three operators on hand either failed to do so or just didn't know how.
The on-call electrician arrived and manually switched the power source, restoring power by about 7 a.m. Monday, according to Avula. However, those backup batteries had only lasted 45 minutes -- meaning the plant was without power for at least 15 minutes.
While this was happening, the plant was also flooding with water from the James River.
According to the VDH, the three operators "did not or could not manually operate valves to prevent the flooding event" after the "other backup systems did not function as needed to prevent" it. The VDH previously told 8News that they should have known how to do this.
Avula previously told 8News that this flooding was extremely fast -- faster than the sub-pumps brought in to try and remove the water could keep up with.
The floodwaters overtook critical pumps and electrical components that weren't meant to be underwater, according to the VDH.
A computer system called “SCADA” — which stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition — is responsible for controlling water operations at the plant. According to the VDH, it manages all sorts of tasks and also displays “critical information” for waterworks staff to reference, like water flow and filter performance. It is maintained by an IT consulting firm.
Avula previously said that the 15 or so minutes of power loss caused SCADA to malfunction. In the VDH notice, it only says that SCADA "did not work effectively after the flooding."
Regardless of what caused SCADA to fail, an IT contractor was called to the plant to fix the system and they arrived early Monday afternoon.
It wasn't until the early morning hours of Tuesday, Jan. 8 that the contractor could get SCADA to reconnect to servers, according to the VDH.
In the meantime, water service that Richmond provided to not only its own residents, but four more surrounding localities, had completely stopped.
The VDH said in a previous statement provided to 8News that the city did not contact the ODW about the issues at the water treatment plant. Instead, the ODW did not learn of what was happening until it reached out to the city between 2:30 and 3 p.m. on Monday. The office did so after it began receiving reports of low and no water pressure from Richmond customers.
Midday on Tuesday, the water treatment plant experienced another malfunction and, subsequently, another flooding event. Avula previously told 8News that "an electrical panel at the facility failed." In the VDH's notice, the department claimed SCADA was down again for 1 to 3 hours.
Water pressure did not fully return to normal until Jan. 10 and the boil water advisories were not lifted until Jan. 11.
What alleged violations did the VDH find?
The state of Virginia has a Public Water Supplies Law and connected Waterworks Regulations. According to the ODW, the city of Richmond is accused of violating two such regulations.
The first regulation Richmond allegedly violated states that "all waterworks shall provide a minimum working pressure of 20 psigauge (psig) at all service connections."
The VDH said this violation reportedly occurred when Richmond lost all water pressure and its storage tanks were emptied.
The second regulation the city is accused of violating states, in part, that owners of waterworks must "provide and maintain conditions throughout the entirety of the waterworks in a manner that will assure a high degree of capability and reliability." It goes on to say that owners should identify any issues that could affect water quality and quickly implement "preventative control measures" to "protect public health."
According to the VDH, the city reportedly violated this regulation due to the "multiple failures at [Richmond's water treatment plant" that led to loss of water pressure and boil water advisories.
The office, in a statement included in the notice, claimed that preventable issues across the board contributed to this crisis, making it "completely avoidable."
"As a matter of routine practice, waterworks owners must anticipate, prepare for, practice and train staff to overcome a temporary power outage," the ODW said. "The City of Richmond waterworks experienced a complete loss of pressure in the distribution system and had inadequate pressure for more than three days in the distribution system. Multiple, redundant, backup, fail-safe power systems did not function properly, or, in certain cases, were not operational, did not function long enough, or took too long to become operational. Not enough staff were present at the [plant] by ODW’s observations to effectively respond to the power outage. [Plant] staff did not adequately respond to the power outage, possibly because of a lack of awareness of what needed to happen quickly, ineffective training, or other reasons as might be identified through the ongoing investigation."
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The VDH added that additional notices of alleged violation could be issued depending on the results of the forthcoming investigation.
What is the VDH ordering Richmond to do?
Within 30 days of the city receiving this notice -- which it reportedly did on Wednesday, Jan. 23 -- the VDH has ordered it to carry out the following corrective actions:
Ensure all waterworks staff are trained on power outage response.
The VDH said that Richmond must newly train all licensed operators, in-training operators and other staff on how to respond to a power outage.
The city must be able to describe when and how the training was delivered, as well as what it contained.
Richmond must confirm the completion of this effort in writing.
Provide requested training, testing documentation.
The VDH said that Richmond must submit the water treatment plant's standard operating procedures for a power outage response, which should include the roles and responsibilities of all staff.
The city must also provide documentation showing that all emergency backup systems have been tested and are working properly. This should include all secondary power sources. It should also include evidence that SCADA can continue to work during an emergency event.
If the city cannot produce these documents, it must provide VDH with its plans to restore any faulty systems to their normal working conditions.
Outline how backup power systems will be regularly monitored.
Richmond must produce a plan to ensure that all backup power systems are routinely tested and run through drills, according to the VDH, especially when preparing for storm events.
The purpose of this regular testing is to prevent flooding or other damage to the water treatment plant during a storm, as well as to prevent any interruption to water service.
The city must describe the frequency of this testing as well as how it will run drills that practice the switch between everyday to emergency power sources.
Create a staffing plan for storm events.
The city must create a plan detailing the expected amount of staffing during a significant storm event going forward, according to the VDH.
PREVIOUS: Richmond Schools works to fix payroll issues, will pay staff for week of water crisis
It must also describe what those employees' expected responsibilities are.
Continue to allow the ODW access to the city's water system.
The VDH said it must continue to receive "unfettered and complete access" to all parts of Richmond's water system, from the water treatment plant to all other related facilities. This is to include all related employees.
The VDH also ordered Richmond to continue to comply with its investigation, which should conclude on April 7, as previously stated.
Notably, the city is conducting its own investigation -- also through a third-party firm -- into the water crisis.
You can read the full notice on the VDH's website.
