RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Mayor Danny Avula says with new leadership, operating procedures, and equipment in place at the water treatment plant, the city is well-positioned to avoid future emergencies like the water crisis that impacted much of the region one year ago.
“I’m really proud of what the team has done in under 12 months," Avula said in an interview with reporter Tyler Layne.
In the time since January 6, 2025 — when a weather-related power outage at the plant and subsequent equipment failures that management and staff were ill-prepared to respond to caused a major disruption in water supply — Avula has been laser focused on transforming the Department of Public Utilities (DPU).
Investigations following the water crisis revealed a multitude of failures in leadership, operations, and culture within DPU along with years of infrastructure neglect at the plant. After-action reviews produced a long list of recommendations for improvement for Avula's team to implement.
“Tyler, I feel like our team has done everything possible to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again, and it's still a 100-year-old plant that needs some ongoing investment, and that's part of what we have mapped out over the next few years," Avula said.
Those preventative steps include replacing critical equipment, strengthening the plant's backup power supplies, re-training and bolstering staff, and updating standard operating procedures.
The "ongoing investment" Avula referred to has led him to request an additional $80 million in funding from the state over the next two years. It's to be determined whether that request will be met.
“If you don't get state funding, will you raise rates on the customers?” Layne asked.
“We have already kind of mapped out that there are going to need to be incremental rate increases over time," he responded. "It's really challenging in a time like this, when affordability is such a challenge for so many of our residents, and so we're really trying to minimize the degree that we need to increase rates, but I do anticipate that there will be utility rate increases. I mean, there was last year, and I think there will continue to be as we need to invest in the system."
“As soon as even [this] year, looking at raising rates again?” Layne asked.
“Yeah, I think that’s right," the mayor said. "Now, the degree to which that increase is is dependent on how much funding can we get from other sources, like the state or if the region were to say, 'Hey, we really want to come together do a front loading of funds to accelerate the modernization of the plant.' And if that money were to come from other localities, we could then keep the rate costs down.”
Watch: Full interview with Mayor Avula one year after Richmond Water Crisis
“I feel like a lot of city residents feel like they already pay high rates, so to hear that that'll keep going up, of course, probably will be difficult news," Layne said.
“Yeah, and it's not so different, like we've had rate increases every few years or every other year," Avula said. "It's part of how we ended up in the situation, right? When we didn't create a business model that could actually support the investment needs of the water infrastructure, it required past leadership to delay or defer maintenance."
Over the next five years, Avula said the city needs $270 million to meet all of its water system infrastructure needs.
Avula said the city has fulfilled its obligations with its state regulator, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH). After the water crisis, the city entered a consent order with VDH, which required many corrective actions the city needed to make in order to comply with drinking water regulations and laws. It also required the city to submit quarterly updates to VDH, documenting its progress in meeting the requirements of the consent order.
In the most recent update submitted by the city in October, VDH acknowledged "significant progress," but added DPU Director Scott Morris provided "insufficient detail" about what exactly DPU is doing to address the cited deficiencies.
For example, Morris provided a spreadsheet to VDH which only stated whether progress on a deficiency was "resolved" or "pending" and whether corrective action was "taken," "planned," or "acknowledged." The documentation did not provide details about how the city responded to each specific citation.
VDH asked the city to provide further detail in its next update, to which Morris said his current level of detail is already enough.
“Why not just provide the state with more information if they're asking for it?” Layne asked.
“I don't have any concerns that we will ultimately meet all of the regulatory requirements by the deadline. I think the back and forth there is just, you know, VDH trying to figure out what it needs, and our DPU saying, 'Hey, I thought we provided this information,'" Avula responded.
“I mean, do you think that this is enough? Does this suffice for you? Just saying 'corrective action taken' or 'resolved,' and that just being the update?” Layne asked.
“I don't worry as much about the language that's in the spreadsheet, because, remember, VDH's technicians are actually coming out on site sometimes about once a month," Avula said.
Later this month, VDH will be at the plant again for a follow-up inspection.
“Will there ever be a water crisis again?” Layne asked.
“Nothing's 100%, Tyler, but I really do think that we have done everything that we possibly can, both investing in equipment, in building team and expertise, and then in building the mindset of emergency responsiveness," Avula said.
Looking back, Avula — who was just a week on the job when the water crisis began — said the event forced the city to face its vulnerabilities and think differently about how it spends money.
His hope is that the people of Richmond take confidence in the work he said his administration is doing.
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