Less than a week after an outage that left Richmond residents without water for days, April Bingham resigned as director of the City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities. Bingham was appointed to the role in 2021 by former Mayor Levar M. Stoney. She assumed the role after previous work with the Washington Gas Light Company and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority.

The City of Richmond announced Bingham’s resignation Wednesday in a media release that also announced Anthony Morris, a professional engineer and director of water for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, as interim DPU director.

“As someone with a history of working in local and state water service roles, including a previous tenure with the City of Richmond as a wastewater plant chief operator, I am excited to return to Richmond to lead the Department of Public Utilities,” Morris said in the release. “As the City continues to recover from the recent water service outage at the plant, I look forward to working with the team to support the delivery of essential utility services to Richmonders.”

The days leading up to Bingham’s resignation were filled with scrutiny of her work and awareness of long-term issues at the water treatment plant that contributed to the outage and crisis.

Bingham acknowledged the aging infrastructure of the water treatment plant but placed the sole blame for the crisis on the power outage caused by a snowstorm during a press conference last week.

 Mayor Danny Avula held a news conference Wednesday, Jan. 8, to provide an update on the City’s water treatment plant restoration efforts. He was joined by city officials, including April Bingham, far left, the now former director of the Department of Public Utilities.
 

However, reports have continued to highlight issues with the plant and concerns raised by other agencies and inspection groups in the past.

Bingham was absent from city press conferences during the last days before the water crisis was resolved, with other officials answering questions and addressing her absence.

In an interview with the Richmond Free Press hours after Bingham’s exit, Avula praised her work during the crisis, describing her resignation as an “amicable” and voluntary one following ongoing conversations on the future of DPU leadership.

When asked if he would have fired Bingham if she hadn’t resigned, Avula opted to not speculate on the choices he would’ve made in that situation.

“I think the conversations, again, were really amicable and we both got to a point of mutual understanding of what we thought the next phase was going to be,” Avula said. “It worked out well, and we’re really grateful for the work that she’s done and looking forward to the next chapter of leadership.”

Avula added that the search for a permanent DPU director would begin after the investigation into the crisis enters its second phase, the water plant restoration process is underway for “a few months,” and a new Chief Administrative Officer is appointed.