Damage from a storm caused Richmond’s water treatment plant to experience a power outage last Monday, Jan. 6 that cut off access to clean water for the whole city of Richmond along with parts of Henrico, Hanover, and Goochland counties until the following Saturday.

The outage was followed by a series of technical failures that delayed repairs. Schools and restaurants closed down, the water supply was likely contaminated with dangerous pollutants, and water stopped flowing from the tap, forcing residents to rely on bottled water from stores and to boil water from other sources in order to make it safe to drink. The outage also delayed the inauguration of Richmond’s new mayor and the start of the 2025 General Assembly session.

Chesterfield county was largely unaffected, as it has a separate water system and was able to cut off its connection to Richmond’s before any contamination occurred. Multiple governmental and humanitarian organizations brought bottled water to the most severely affected areas of the city.

The plant had multiple backup systems in place in case of failures but they were not tested before last week’s winter storm despite the city’s knowledge that they had already been deteriorating at least 13 years ago, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspected the treatment plant in 2022 before issuing a citation for multiple pieces of equipment that were overdue for maintenance. The state has launched an investigation into the event.

Richmond’s water crisis showed residents how life can turn upside down and why fixes can not wait.