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Good & Less Good Water News

Good & Less Good Water News

RVA 5x5 - July 9, 2025

Jon Baliles's avatar
Jon Baliles
Jul 09, 2025
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The theme of 2025 in Richmond has been and will continue to be all about “the water.” In a normal year, “the water” would just refer to the James River, which is the one thing just about everybody in our region agrees is pretty awesome and is part of the city’s and region’s identity and DNA. What started out as a bad year for the water coming from the faucet (or not), might be starting to turn around. Let’s face it, the first five months of 2025 was all bad in regard to water — two boil water advisories (BWA) and a fluoride overdose at the water plant, poor communication with residents and regional neighbors, unforced errors galore, supermarket water isle chaos; we all know the story.

This week, however, there was a considerable amount of good news (accompanied by some less good) in the world of city water. The Director of Public Utilities (DPU) Scott Morris reported to Council some good news on Monday about the progress made towards making the necessary changes at the water plant that were ignored for years. The less good news is the new budget year has begun and comes with another year of higher water/utility rates.

Let’s start, though, with the good news. One positive aspect coming out of the water mess is that the new DPU Director is by all accounts, the right man to right the ship. He is an engineer (not an unqualified hire from the Stoney administration) who worked with the state Department of Health (VDH), which has been keeping a keen and hawkish eye on the operation of our water plant. Most of the talk about Morris from City Hall is he is a data driven, results oriented type, which is exactly what is needed and has long been lacking at DPU.

Morris’ update Monday at City Council detailed the progress that the city has made stabilizing the water plant situation since the the meltdown in January and the second BWA in May while also addressing the concerns highlighted by VDH. The city is by no means out of the woods yet, but progress, which seemed like just a mirage six weeks ago, might be starting to come into view. Morris said the city has completed

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