Treatment bypass reported — City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (Richmond WWTP and combined sewer system), May 25, 2026

Record details

Original source data

{
  "report": {
    "id": "323702",
    "via": "api",
    "incident": "2026-05-25T22:00:00",
    "incident_end": null,
    "received": "2026-05-26T15:32:00",
    "closed": "2026-06-02T13:06:25",
    "modified": "2026-07-01T11:34:37",
    "date_unknown": false,
    "site_name": "Richmond WWTP - Loss of UV System when entering 'wet flow' conditions from rain event",
    "address": "1400 Brander Street",
    "city": "Richmond",
    "zip": "23224",
    "county_city": "Richmond City",
    "region": "Piedmont",
    "status_text": "Closed",
    "categories": [
      "Unauthorized Discharge of Pollutant(s)"
    ],
    "waterbody": "James River",
    "other_waterbody": null,
    "original_waterbody": "James River",
    "water_threatened": "Y",
    "low": null,
    "high": null,
    "unit": null,
    "ssors": null,
    "nrc": [],
    "vdem": null,
    "epa": null,
    "facility_name": "Richmond WWTP",
    "facility_permitted": "Y",
    "responsible_company": null,
    "still_occurring": "N"
  },
  "text": {
    "incident_comment": "At 11:44 PM [name removed], Program and Operations Supervisor, Senior, sent out an email notifying plant management that the Richmond WWTP had entered wet flow conditions, but they were unable to start up the UV system on the wet weather channel, allowing discharge from the wet weather system that had not been disinfected to discharge out of  Outfall 102.Maintenance personnel were able to reset the system on May 26,2026 and subsequent troubleshooting has found no further issues with the system.",
    "location_comment": "Loss of UV disenfection after entering 'wet flow' conditions.",
    "closure_comment": null
  },
  "sewage": [
    {
      "duration_h": 1.33,
      "component": "Other",
      "component_id": 7,
      "volume_gal": 1920000,
      "volume_unknown": null,
      "wet_weather": "Y",
      "treated": "N",
      "precipitation_in": null,
      "causes": [
        "Other"
      ],
      "impacts": [
        "Discharge to State Waters"
      ],
      "corrective_action": "Troubleshooting of UV system",
      "steps_taken": null,
      "component_comment": "UV disenfection system failure",
      "other_cause": null
    }
  ],
  "status_log": [
    {
      "at": "2026-05-27T07:06:36",
      "type": "Call Received"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-05-27T07:30:50",
      "type": "Assigned"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-05-27T07:30:50",
      "type": "Under Investigation"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-02T09:38:06",
      "type": "Assigned"
    },
    {
      "at": "2026-06-02T13:06:25",
      "type": "Closed Call/IR"
    }
  ],
  "created_in_prep": "2026-05-27T07:06:36",
  "event_type_basis": "treatment-plant discharge not filed as a sanitary sewer overflow (category: Unauthorized Discharge of Pollutant(s))",
  "permit": {
    "typed_permit": "VA0063177",
    "deq_vpdes_links": [
      "VA0063177"
    ],
    "ms4": null,
    "ms4_links": null,
    "basis": "DEQ's VPDES link on the report"
  },
  "discharger_match": {
    "by_permit": "va-richmond-dpu",
    "by_name": [
      "va-richmond-dpu"
    ],
    "result": "by permit"
  },
  "volume_basis": "sewage report discharge volume (gallons)",
  "_ended_at_basis": "incident time + duration 1.33 h (sewage report)",
  "_time_basis": "PReP API times are local wall-clock times with no zone, read as America/New_York. The export table stores local time + 5 h all year (decoded by subtracting 5 h); the EDMA point layer stores local time labelled as UTC (decoded by reading the UTC clock as local).",
  "water_placement": {
    "text": "James River",
    "towns": [
      "Richmond",
      "Richmond City"
    ],
    "notes": null,
    "echo_outfall": null
  },
  "point": {
    "lat": 37.519073,
    "lon": -77.421723,
    "layer": "DEQ EDMA layer 175 (PReP Reports, Daily)",
    "reference_point": "PG",
    "note": "DEQ's geocode of the report's site address (REFERENCE_POINT 'PG'), not an outfall point",
    "edma_incident": "2026-05-25T22:00:00-04:00",
    "edma_received": "2026-05-26T15:32:00-04:00"
  },
  "attribution": "DEQ is the data source. DEQ does not certify that this data represents a complete record. This data is provided to the citizens of the Commonwealth free of charge and for informational purposes only.",
  "api_url": "https://portal.deq.virginia.gov/prep/api/prepReports/323702?expand=prepStatusCode,prepUnitTypeCode,prepReportSewages.prepComponentTypeCode,prepReportSewages.prepSewageCauses.prepCauseCode,prepReportSewages.prepSewageImpacts.prepImpactTypeCode,prepReportReleaseSubtypes.prepReleaseSubtypeCode,prepReportPermitViews,prepOriginalReport,prepReportEvents.prepEventTypeCode,prepFipsCode.fipsRegion"
}

Source: Virginia DEQ Pollution Response Program (PReP), Piedmont Regional Office via Virginia DEQ Pollution Response Program (PReP) pollution reports, sewage-related, record 323702, reported May 26, 2026, 3:32 PM EDT, retrieved 2026-11-03 02:40 UTC · Read the original notice

Staff names, email addresses and phone numbers are removed from source data before it is stored.