By Leah Johnston

Richmond’s water treatment plant located along the James River. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch via Instagram.

On the afternoon of Monday, January 6, the City of Richmond released a Boil Water Advisory and encouraged consumers to limit their water usage. Earlier that morning, winter weather conditions caused a power outage at the city’s only water treatment plant, which led to a mechanical failure and flooding of the plant’s basement, compromising the plant’s ability to produce clean water. As officials worked to restore full function to the plant, the Byrd Park reservoir began to deplete. As the day continued, consumers saw a decrease in water pressure, and many residents experienced a total loss of water service. 

At 4:26 p.m. on Monday, the city, led by recently inaugurated Mayor Danny Avula (D), officially issued the advisory. At the time, the goal was to have full water pressure restored by 10 p.m. However, even after several pumps were working properly 12 hours later, an electrical panel failure delayed restoration. Consumers ended up without water for four days.

Mayor Avula, who regularly updated residents on the status of the crisis. Photo credit: @rvagov via Instagram.

As reservoir levels dropped, city residents were not the only people impacted by the crisis. Areas in Goochland and Hanover counties also faced decreased or no water pressure. About two days into the crisis, all of Henrico County was placed under a Boil Water Advisory as a precautionary measure due to potential exposure to the unsafe Richmond water. 

While most area school districts were closed on Wed., Jan. 8 due to the water issues, Collegiate chose to still hold classes as scheduled. In an email to the school community from Collegiate’s alert service, the School assured families that, “the Health Department has cleared our food service to provide lunch, but we will not be serving water-based beverages or ice.” All water fountains were taped off so that students would not drink from them. Susi Lubik (’26) reflected that although she did not have tap water at home, coming to school without water was not an issue for her because “my mom stockpiled a bunch of water over the past few years,” and, as a result, “I had enough clean water to fill my water bottle.”

Water service was back to normal for most area residents at approximately 11:30 am on Saturday, Jan. 11. The Department of Public Utilities (DPU) restored function by having “pumps delivered and installed to replace failed pumps that needed repair” in the water treatment plant. When water pressure in the city was restored, the city asked residents to flush their pipes by turning on each tap and letting water run for ten minutes. This ensured that any cloudy water with sediment was cleaned out of the pipes. 

Aerial view of the Byrd Park reservoir. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch via Instagram.

Back in December 2024, the DPU celebrated 50 years of the Safe Drinking Water Act and 100 years of operation of Richmond’s water treatment plant. The DPU claimed to be investing in “advanced water treatment technologies, upgrade aging infrastructure.” But general dissatisfaction with the handling of the ensuing water crisis led to administrative changes. Richmond DPU Director April N. Bingham resigned on January 15, less than a week after the crisis finally ended. The Virginia Department of Health released an Initial Notice of Alleged Violation, which the city is obligated to comply with under health regulations. The city hired HNTB Corporation, which specializes in infrastructure, to formally investigate the causes of the crisis and create an action plan to ensure something similar does not happen again.

The crisis left many individuals coping with the lack of water in different ways. Laura Teele, a junior at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School and former Collegiate student, lives in the Fan District and was impacted by the outage. Teele’s family melted snow from their backyard in to flush their toilets. The family also dealt with the outage by taking their showers at a gym and relying on emergency water cartons. According to Teele, her “mother was the most affected, as she’s a city official and had a hectic time trying to help distribute water and keep people informed.” Teele’s school was canceled the entire week due in part to the water outage but also as a result of lingering winter weather conditions.

Bev’s in Carytown. Photo credit: Bev’s Homemade Ice Creams.

Many small businesses were also forced to close due to the lack of water. Erin Bottcher, owner of Bev’s Homemade Ice Cream & Cafe in Carytown, faced challenges as a business owner. Without water, her café cannot operate. In a recent interview with The Match, Bottcher explained, “We rely on the water for our scoops and the dip well,” so she was forced to stay closed Tuesday-Friday. She said it was “really frustrating to be on kind of a day-by-day basis, especially for my employees—a lot of them are students who pretty much have to rely on work here.” Still, Bottcher was grateful for the timing of the crisis, since it was during her “offseason, so I’m not in the busiest sales point of my year.” As a result, her loss in revenue was lower than it would have been if the weather were warmer.

To support individuals who were financially impacted by the water crisis, the Mayor’s office has rolled out a recovery initiative. Anyone with “demonstrated financial need related to the water crisis” can submit an application to the city beginning on January 31. If their request is accepted, residents may be reimbursed for any of the following: “rent, mortgage payments, health-related expenses, childcare, utilities, and missed car loan payments.” In order to help small businesses and restaurants that lost revenue during the crisis, Mayor Avula encouraged Richmonders to shop and dine locally during Water Recovery Week, which took place from January 24-31.

Losing access to clean, reliable water affected various areas of the community differently. Whether its impacts were felt on a superficial or profound level, the January water crisis is an example of the perils caused by aging infrastructure in an expanding city, and around the country.