Water, Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink
When I saw pictures this week of water flooding inside, not outside, of the Richmond Water Treatment Plant, I was reminded of the famous line from the ancient epic poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” Richmond’s pumps flooded and knocked out water to most of the region. Richmond’s water treatment plant failed. Then the backups failed. They drained the lake at Byrd Park and then tried to pump water directly out of the James River…and that failed too.
In Richmond, we get over 40 inches of rain each year. The mighty James River runs right through the heart of the city. We have lakes and ponds and creeks. We are practically surrounded by water, but what good is it if the equipment that’s supposed to pump it into our homes fails? And what are we supposed to do when the people who are in charge of delivering the water, fail at their jobs?
Richmond’s new mayor Dr. Danny Avula will get some of the blame for this week’s fiasco, even though the water crisis was not his fault. The poor guy is less than one week on the job and he gets hit with a water crisis.
Meanwhile, the head of the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) April Bingham has been on the job for five years. According to official records, her salary was about 90k more than outgoing Mayor Levar Stoney, a whopping $217,738 plus expenses in 2023.
Despite the DPU sending people $25,000 in water bills to citizens and pumping raw sewage in the James River and covering it up for several days, she kept that job.
Now we find out that the #WATERCRISIS could have been avoided. The agency was cited by the EPA repeatedly for emergency planning and outdated equipment, dating back to 2022.
If I was running DPU (which is kind of a silly thought, because I’m not an engineer and neither is Bingham apparently), I would have had the common sense and decency to quit the job on Tuesday. I hope Dr. Danny will learn from this crisis, as we all have, that our new mayor and his team need to “clean house” and replace the incompetent folks in RVA government ASAP.
MONDAY:
SNOW DAY
The first full week back from the holidays brought us a beautiful, frosty winter wonderland…and an avalanche of issues. Most of our Madison+Main-iacs experienced power outages and wifi connectivity problems, while most had to suffer through the water crisis. Regardless, the crew persevered.
TUESDAY:
WATER COWORKERS FOR?!
The office may not have had water, but Creative Director Carissa Ghaffari was nice enough to share her overflow! Creative Team members Lauren McKinney, AJ Stuit, and Robyn Quarles braved the slushy roads of Richmond to enjoy some quality coworking time (and to borrow clean water and wifi) in the West End.
WEDNESDAY:
MOLLIE B. + ANNE-IVERSARIES
Whatever would we do without our HR + Operations Manager Mollie Banks and in-house hype woman/Account Executive Anne Bowers? Hopefully, we won’t have to know! We celebrated FIVE years of Mollie B. and one year with Anne on Wednesday. We appreciate everything you both do and can’t wait to celebrate more anniversaries to come.
THURSDAY:
TEXAS INN FOR THE WIN
It’s kinda hard to operate a restaurant when you have to boil water and you can’t use your drink fountain or ice machine, but the hard-working crew decided to show up for work anyway – not to serve burgers – but to serve our neighbors. We secured a ton of bottled water and then gave it away to folks in need. We gave out water to over 100 folks, for free, and in the process got a nice mention in the news.
FRIDAY:
ON THE AIR
Although there is not much to choose from because of cancellations due to the water crisis (and another round of snow forecasted), I managed to compile a list of cool things to see and do around RVA this weekend. I shared my findings with John Reid and his audience of Richmond’s Morning News on WRVA. ICYMI.
A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE EVENTS
Bucko performing at Bandito’s Burrito Lounge
Friday, January 10, 2025
Location: Bandito’s Burrito Lounge
Address: 2905 Patterson Ave, Richmond, VA 23221
Richmond’s favorite honkytonk goof-rock band Bucko, featuring frontwoman and Account Executive Extraordinaire Ava Coles, will be playing at Bandito’s in the fan (right around the corner from Texas Inn) tonight. You don’t want to miss it!
$10 cover, doors open at 8:00 p.m., music starts at 9:00 p.m.
Roots Natural Kitchen – Midlothian Location Grand Opening
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Location: Winterfield Crossing Shopping Center from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Address: 14207 Winterview Parkway
Roots Natural Kitchen is celebrating the grand opening of its third Richmond-area restaurant on January 11th from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and is offering 40% off from bowls ordered at the Midlothian location in-store, in-app, and online with code MIDLO. The first 100 customers will also receive a free Roots Natural Kitchen t-shirt.
“Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan.” – Dr. Phil McGraw