Comprehensive Waterworks Evaluation and Cost Estimate

Challenge

In early January 2025, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Office of Drinking Water (ODW) responded swiftly to a major operational failure at the City of Richmond’s waterworks facility. As a state regulator, VDH is charged with protecting public health and ensuring water system reliability. ODW recognized the need for an independent, clear, fact-based understanding of the incident – including its root causes, communication breakdowns, and compliance implications beyond that which was already being performed by the City of Richmond.  
 
Beyond addressing the immediate event, ODW also sought a broader evaluation: a proactive assessment of the City of Richmond’s water infrastructure to ensure safe, uninterrupted water service well into the future. This included pump stations, storage tanks, reservoirs, treatment systems, and operational procedures.  

Solution

To help make informed regulatory and planning decisions, ODW partnered with SEH to deliver a comprehensive root-cause investigation and high-level waterworks needs assessment.  

Together, with support from the City of Richmond, our teams focused on reviewing the facts and current state, identifying vulnerabilities, and equipping ODW with the technical insight needed to support recommendations on long-term resiliency and compliance improvements.   
 
This joint, in-depth investigation focused on two key goals: 

• Deliver a detailed root cause analysis of the January incident. 
• Conduct a high-level condition assessment of the City of Richmond’s water infrastructure. 

Through this partnership, ODW obtained the technical insight necessary to guide informed regulatory decisions, set priorities for system improvements, and restore public trust. 

Root Cause Evaluation 

With ODW’s leadership, a comprehensive review was conducted that included operator logs, SCADA data, engineering documents, and interviews with plant staff and decision-makers. A dedicated team of 12 SEH engineers was mobilized to be on-site within weeks of being awarded the project to perform first-hand inspections and maintain open communication with ODW and Richmond staff. They also ensured a thorough review of all records and after-action reports generated from the surrounding counties to understand the full scope of the outage.  
 
To analyze the failure, our experts applied industrial-grade problem-solving tools, including the Six M’s framework (manpower, machinery, methods, materials, measurements, and environment), and developed a cascading failure model. This model visually mapped how multiple breakdowns – technical, procedural, and cultural – interacted to cause the overall system collapse.  
 
This objective analysis empowered stakeholders to clearly understand what went wrong and why, ensuring accountability and providing a strong foundation for corrective action. 

Waterworks System Assessment 

With an eye toward sustained long-term improvements, ODW supported the City of Richmond’s efforts by providing an additional resource in evaluating Richmond’s broader water system. SEH provided technical support to assess the condition, capacity, and reliability of:

• Nine pump stations 
• Nine elevated storage tanks 
• Byrd Park reservoir 
• Water treatment plant