Richmond study finds transfer-switch failure led to January water plant outage; city adopts corrective actions

Robert Page, an HNTB investigator, told the Richmond City Council’s Organizational Development standing committee that “the root cause of the failure was the failure of the transfer switch and switch gear 6,” and that subsequent electrical and UPS failures allowed filter effluent valves to remain open, flooding the treatment-plant basement.

The HNTB final report, presented at the committee meeting, concluded the flood damaged pumps and critical electrical equipment and caused a nearly 36-hour outage that produced a citywide boil-water advisory. The report attributed the outage to the mechanical failure plus compounding operational issues: undersized uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with additional loads, delayed or absent staff emergency procedures, limited training for managerial staff, gaps in standard operating procedures (SOPs), delays in capital-project implementation and preventative maintenance, and poor communications during the incident.

The report’s recommended actions aim to reduce risk and improve response. HNTB’s recommendations included implementing seasonal risk assessments that involve all treatment-plant staff; developing SOPs and recurring emergency-response training for treatment-plant managers and operators; evaluating and reprioritizing the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and implementation processes; replacing undersized UPS units; adding visual and remote indicators and…