RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond's Department of Public Utilities has been fined $48,203.19 by the state following multiple sewage leaks into the James River in the summer of 2024 — and state records exclusively obtained by CBS 6 show human error played a role in at least one of those leaks.
The leaks occurred in July 2024 from a pipe over the James River along the Pipeline Trail. At the time, the city blamed the incident on failed bypass pumps. But state records tell a more complete story: the bypass pumps were being filled with the incorrect fuel type, which caused them to shut down.
One of the leaks, on July 16, 2024, prompted the Virginia Department of Health to issue a recreational water advisory due to elevated levels of E. coli in the river.
Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality issued a Notice Of Violation to the city in September 2024 related to the leaks. CBS 6 has now uncovered that last month, the city entered into a consent order with Richmond DPU.
As part of that agreement, the city must pay DEQ just over $6,000. However, it can avoid paying the remaining $42,000 in fines if it completes a Supplemental Environmental Project — defined as an environmentally beneficial project undertaken as partial settlement of a civil enforcement action.
The project Richmond agreed to is the removal of accumulated woody debris trapped by the piers and levee structure of the T. Tyler Potterfield Memorial Bridge. The project must be completed within 90 days of the effective date of the consent order. While the project will not remove all of the woody debris around the bridge, it will remove approximately eight to nine large trees.
DEQ also identified numerous preventative maintenance, equipment and unit process issues during an inspection of the city's wastewater treatment plant — the facility at the center of the consent order.
CBS 6 investigative reporter Melissa Hipolit spoke with Patrick Griffin with RVA Paddlesports in January of last year, right after the Richmond water crisis, about the impact the sewage leak had on his business. The leaks forced Griffin to push back a major kayak event in the summer of 2024.
"I think the rest of the city and the region is kind of feeling our pains that we felt in the summer with the pipeline leak,” Griffin said at the time.
When we spoke with Griffin last year, he hoped DPU would not only improve the city's water treatment plant, but also focus on its issues at the wastewater treatment plant — which this consent order directly addresses.
"Just keeping the conversation at the forefront is really important. Sometimes the further we get removed from these events, then people tend to think, 'Oh, it's not affecting me anymore,'” Griffin said. "Just understanding the solutions are long term, in the order of five, 10, 15 years, and understanding we need to keep the pressure for that length of time."
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