Preliminary HNTB report pins Richmond water-plant outage on power transfer failure; city to operate in "summer mode" year-round

The Government Operations Committee heard a presentation on preliminary findings from HNTB on the January water-treatment-plant outage, where city staff said the plant experienced a complete loss of power that led to about 36 hours of outage and flooding in the basement that damaged equipment.

The preliminary report, summarized by Anthony Scott Morris, the city's director of public utilities, found that a bus tie failed to transfer power from the primary feed to the secondary feed, and that an effluent valve and UPS-related failures contributed to the loss of service. "The water treatment plant experienced a complete loss of power," Morris said during the Feb. committee meeting. He told council members that the plant had been operating in a "winter mode" at the time of the failure and that operating in that configuration presented a single point of failure.

Why it matters: the outage prompted emergency deliveries, a state of emergency declaration and separate state-level scrutiny. Committee members pressed staff for detail on accountability, operational changes and cost estimates ahead of the city's March budget schedule.

HNTB recommendations and city response

Morris listed the chief recommendations identified in the…