RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond's Department of Public Utilities has spent the past year upgrading critical infrastructure, changing the culture, and rebuilding public trust following the January 2025 water crisis that left residents without safe drinking water.
Mayor Danny Avula, who took office on December 31, 2024, acknowledged that the department lacked an emergency preparedness mindset heading into the crisis. He handpicked engineer Scott Morris nine days after the crisis began to lead DPU and transform its culture.
"I think what we saw happen last January was a result of not being ready, you know, not being in that emergency response mindset," Avula said. "Scott and his whole team have worked so hard to build a different culture, and to make sure that folks who are responsible for, like, the most basic critical infrastructure in our city, like are coming to this job with that mindset."
Morris emphasized the cultural shift from reactive to proactive thinking.
"It's changing the culture from a general acceptance and being more proactive and kind of going with a 'what if’ type scenario," Morris said.
Major improvements implemented
The city said it has made significant staffing and infrastructure changes over the past year. Avula said Morris quickly built a team of qualified professionals.
"Scott very quickly built a team, brought in a total of five professional engineers at the leadership level of the Department of Public Utilities, a lot of expertise that we didn't previously have," Avula said.
Critical infrastructure upgrades include fixing the switchgear, installing a backup substation, a brand new substation, and integrating an automatic transfer switch. The new system is fully automated, meaning if the primary power source fails, the plant automatically switches to secondary power, which now operates year-round instead of just during summer months as it did during the crisis.
If secondary power fails, the plant automatically switches to generator power. During the water crisis, this process required manual operation and generators needed to be turned on manually.
The plant also features new backup batteries that hold longer charges than the old system, which lost power quickly during the crisis.
State officials encouraged by progress
Dwayne Roadcap with the Virginia Department of Health's Office of Drinking Water said he's encouraged by the changes.
“We've seen a dramatic change in the leadership. We've seen a very positive change in the leadership,” Roadcap said.
"They're making a very positive impact, changing the culture from the one where people were accepting things that they shouldn't have accepted, to now moving towards to what Scott was saying, preventive maintenance, proactive thinking," Roadcap said.
Challenges remain
Significant work remains, including upgrading the IT system that serves as the operational brain of the facility. Morris compared the prioritization challenge to vehicle repairs.
"It's basically picking, you know, which part on your broken car you want to replace first, right?" Morris said.
While Richmond waits to see if incoming Governor Abigail Spanberger and a Democratic legislature are willing to give the city millions of dollars in funding to upgrade the antiquated water treatment plant, Mayor Avula said his administration is discussing if they want to implement annual utility rate increases.
"Maybe one helpful thing to for the public to know is that every 1% increase allows us to borrow an additional $10 million a year," Avula said. “ So... let's say we did a 4% increase over 10 years, that would be $400 million that we could make in capital investment."
Morris indicated his commitment to maintaining leadership continuity, telling the mayor he's committed to the position.
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