Richmond presents regional water-capacity review and rate-model timeline

Chief Administrative Officer O'Donnell and Public Utilities Director Scott Morris updated the Richmond City Council Organizational Development Standing Committee on regional water coordination and a timetable for proposed rate and budget changes. The administration said the Richmond treatment plant serves about 530,000 residents with roughly 132 million gallons per day of regional capacity and historical demand near 96 million gallons per day.

The presentation outlined work since January: review of condition assessments and external reports from VDH and EPA, the development of a 10‑year capital improvement plan (CIP), a regional tabletop exercise on resilience and cyber threats, and initial rate‑model scenarios. Morris said staff met with Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover utilities, agreed in principle on a proposed 10‑year CIP, and ran multiple rate scenarios including ones assuming varying state contributions.

Council members pressed staff for clearer data on how large commercial customers — notably data centers — will affect demand and how rate structures will allocate costs between residential customers and commercial wholesale purchasers. Council Member Gibson asked for disaggregated projections of residential versus commercial use and for documentation she could share with constituents. Morris replied that wholesale contracts assign maximum point‑of‑entry capacities and that wholesale customers submit annual forecasts; staff currently does not disaggregate use by residential/commercial in the slide deck but can do so.

O'Donnell said the administration applies an "affordability matrix" when modeling rates and will prioritize protecting resident affordability while seeking equitable contributions from large commercial customers. He noted the system still has capacity now but cautioned the analysis and decisions remain in development.

Morris told the committee he and staff would finalize rate models after councilmember meetings and coordination with regional partners; he estimated the models would be ready for circulation to council within one to two weeks. Council members asked for a status update on compliance with state findings and the consent order; Morris said about 85% of consent‑order actions have been addressed or incorporated into the CIP and that staff will provide further status reports.

Council members asked for more pre‑meeting documentation and charts showing projected commercial versus residential use, and multiple members emphasized that transparency and clarity to the public are priorities as the city evaluates possible rate changes and budget requests to the state. O'Donnell said the administration would provide more documentation and engage council in one‑on‑one briefings prior to finalizing proposals.