Richmond officials outline recovery steps, third‑party reviews after multi‑day water outage

Richmond officials on Jan. 13 told the Governmental Operations Standing Committee that repairs and phased recovery work are underway at the city’s main water treatment plant, that drinking water is safe, and that the city has contracted outside firms to produce a forensic after‑action review and an emergency‑management assessment.

“The water quality is safe to drink,” Interim Department of Public Utilities Director Scott Morris told the committee, adding the plant is operating to meet current demand while staff complete incremental repairs. “We’re pacing our actual output of the water treatment plant based off those needs.”

City senior policy adviser Megan Field said the administration had signed a contract with HNTB, an engineering firm, to lead a forensic after‑action review and that Hagerty Consulting will support an assessment of the city’s emergency response and a post‑disaster recovery plan. Jason Hoff, HNTB’s on‑call lead for the review, said the firm will begin desktop analysis immediately and expects to have staff “boots on the ground” at the plant the week after the committee meeting. He said preliminary…