The director of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities has resigned.
April Bingham stepped down Wednesday.
Anthony “Scott” Morris – the current Director of Water for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality – is stepping into the role on an interim basis.
It’s unclear if the change is connected to last week’s crisis at a city water treatment facility that left residents under a boil water advisory for days.
Here's the full news release from the city:
Richmond, VA – Anthony “Scott” Morris, DBA, PE, a U.S. Navy veteran, professional engineer, and the current Director of Water for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, has been selected as the Interim Director of Department of Public Utilities.
The City’s Department of Public Utilities operates four utilities – natural gas, water, wastewater, and stormwater – and serves more than 500,000 residential and commercial customers in the Richmond and surrounding metropolitan region.
“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,” said Interim DPU Director Anthony “Scott” Morris. “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.”
Prior to accepting this role, Morris served as Director of Water at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) as well as Chief Deputy at the agency. He previously held a series of roles with progressively increasing leadership responsibility in the Chesterfield County Utilities Department over a decade of service and spent four years working in wastewater plant operations for the City of Richmond.
Morris is a decorated veteran of the United States Navy. He graduated from the naval nuclear program. His final duty station was the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). He earned a Doctorate of Business Administration degree from Liberty University, a Master’s in Information Services degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Bachelor of Science in Applied Science and Technology with an area of study in Nuclear Engineering Technology from Thomas Edison State College, and an Association of Science degree in Wastewater and Technology from Mountain Empire Community College.
Morris replaces outgoing DPU Director April N. Bingham who resigned from the City on Jan. 15, 2025.