About a year after the discovery of unmetered and unpermitted water connections at the Richland Airport, the city of Richland has cut off the water connection to several hangars, and an outside investigation is currently underway.

Utility connections at the airport, owned by the Port of Benton, have been the subject of much discussion over the last year. 

The city of Richland confirmed that it severed one unauthorized water connection that supplied about 12 hangars. The action was taken after the city asked property owners to obtain the required permits for the service to bring the connections into compliance. 

No individual connections were brought into compliance before the cutoff, the city said. 

However, property owners still have a chance to reestablish service if they complete the proper permitting process and meet city standards for utility connections. 

In the meantime, the Richland Police Department requested the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the alleged crimes. Two major crimes detectives are assigned to complete the case, Sheriff Jim Raymond said.

The port said it was unable to comment on the matter at this time.

The unpermitted and unmetered water connections to airport hangars were first found in an April 2025 inspection of the airport by the city of Richland, though they had been an issue for longer. 

When Commissioner Scott Keller, who was the port’s executive director at the time, bought his 2049 Butler Loop hangar in June 2017, he wasn’t sure how the utilities were provided and asked Roger Wright, a port-contracted engineer, to look into the issue, according to a July 1, 2025, statement from Wright. 

At that time, Wright found that there were several water main lines and water services that didn’t appear to be on city mapping, and a meter could not be found for Keller’s hangar. According to Wright’s statement, Keller asked him to “stop working on this effort.”

The utility connections at Keller’s hangar were part of an investigation into several of the now-commissioner’s actions. When the investigation was released in January, commissioners voted to take no action regarding the part related to Keller’s hangar utilities. 

Keller said in a February statement to the Journal that he “contested and was disappointed in the substance and timing of the complaints.”

At a Feb. 11 commission meeting, commissioners voted to form an ad hoc committee to look into the airport utility issues. 

Chaired by port counsel John O’Leary, the committee was to include Airport Manager Quentin Wright, Contract Specialist Sheri Collins, Construction Project Manager Bryan Bell, Marketing and Communications Manager Summers Miya, and Mark Underwood, property manager for Herb Brayton, an airport tenant.

While the committee worked to gather information and put together a timeline, they did not wrap up their investigation or make a report in a commission meeting prior to the water shutoff. The committee was scheduled to provide an update at the port's May 13 commission meeting.

The ongoing utility issues at the airport are among several issues prompting a group of citizens to petition for a recall of all three port commissioners. Other concerns include the port’s suspension of its executive director, Diahann Howard, in early January, and firing Director of Finance Alicia Myers in February.

A decision on whether the recall can move forward is pending from the state Supreme Court.