RICHMOND, Va. — On Thursday, Richmond city officials confirmed CBS 6's initial reporting that delayed maintenance at the water treatment plant is what caused a two-day boil water advisory that impacted thousands of residents and businesses.
Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Director Scott Morris said the plant delayed cleaning its plate settlers in its sedimentation basin, which ultimately led to clogged filters and a cease in water production.
The plates are responsible for taking big chunks of sediment like dirt and soil out of the water before it reaches the filters, but the plates need to be cleaned regularly in order to remove sludge buildup and keep them functioning properly. However, that cleaning did not happen when it should have.
CBS 6 obtained a work order dated May 12 showing employees at the plant requested that the plates be "thoroughly washed" so that sludge could be removed and clogging could be prevented. However, the work order stated that someone in the operations department decided it "was not a good time" and the cleaning would need to be done at a later date.
Morris confirmed during a Thursday press conference that the plates hadn't been cleaned since March.
City officials declined to answer CBS 6's initial questions from Wednesday regarding the work order and delayed maintenance and whether that led to the boil water advisory, saying they did not want to "speculate on a contributing cause." The next day, the city announced those issues were the underlying cause.
During the Thursday press conference, reporter Tyler Layne asked, "If you’ll recall, that work order stated someone in the operations department stated it wasn’t a good time to clean the plates. I’m wondering who made that decision? Why did they make that decision? How will you hold that person accountable considering it led to yet another water crisis? Are you confident in the people who are running the plant?”
“First of all, I’m not going to speak to personnel matters in an open public forum. We do have high accountability when we make changes in the process. We have instituted somebody that I have a high degree of respect for, Tony Singh, my new senior deputy director over operations. He is housed right there at the water treatment plant. That’s a new change. Never before have we had executive leadership from DPU housed right at the water treatment plant," Morris responded, adding that Singh will be focusing on auditing, investigating, and improving the operations of the plant.
He continued, "Back to the decision to do the cleaning at a particular time or not. When it is a correction action, they kind of shuffle that to a lower priority. It’s a judgement call when you do that. Switching it to a preventive maintenance item on a routine basis removes that judgement call per se.”
Moving forward, Morris said maintenance protocols will be strengthened, and the plates will be cleaned on a rotation of every four weeks as opposed to an as-needed basis.
"Are you able to disclose the person or the title of the position that made this decision not to clean the plates?" reporter Tyler Layne asked again.
"As I mentioned before, I'm going to discuss personnel matters. I will hold those individuals accountable. Rest assured of that," Morris said.
Mayor Danny Avula acknowledged it could take "years" before the culture is changed at the plant.
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