Drinking water quality violations have been rampant in West Virginia.
There is an opportunity to tell state regulators how they should prioritize funding that could help reduce those violations.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is seeking public comment on its priorities for water and wastewater infrastructure improvement programs for which over $143 million is available in funding for fiscal year 2026.
The DEP will hold a public meeting this month to discuss its draft plans, called Intended Use Plans, for the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund. The funds comprise a program to address water quality problems through facility construction, upgrades or expansions.
Projects requesting fund assistance are prioritized using a ranking system used to determine project scoring.
The DEP and state Water Development Authority, a separate entity that serves as a revenue bond bank to provide financing to local governmental agencies for water and wastewater facility construction, have faced criticism from southern coalfield advocates that they haven't adequately supported projects in their communities.  Â
The plans are to be submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its review when completed.
Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund
The DEP took over administration of the Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund from the then-Department of Health and Human Resources in 2023 through that year’s Senate Bill 561.
The DWTRF gives financial support to public water systems to finance eligible infrastructure improvements to comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The program was authorized via federal SDWA amendments in 1996 to aid public water systems in financing the cost of infrastructure needed to comply with SDWA requirements. Typical fund-supported projects have included water treatment plant upgrades, distribution and storage upgrades and water system extensions.
Net available funds during fiscal year 2026 are estimated to total just over $56 million, according to the DWTRF Intended Use Plan.
Three categories — public health, regulatory compliance and affordability — are used to determine project scoring. Projects that apply for DWTRF funding are ranked and are listed in a project priority list. The highest-ranked projects on the list are contacted concerning their project status to determine if funding from the DWTRF is appropriate and the project is ready to proceed. The ranking system allows for higher public health ranking for utilities that have multiple violations.
West Virginia’s southern coalfield counties have struggled to maintain aging water infrastructure, contending with dwindling tax bases and legacies of water pollution from area mining operations.
Of the highest-ranked 100 projects, 14 are in McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Wyoming and Boone counties, with the majority in McDowell. There were 18 projects ranked in the 100 highest-ranked systems in the fiscal year 2025 DWTRF Intended Use Plan, led by McDowell and Mingo counties.
The five highest-ranked projects in the state’s DWTRF Intended Use Plan (with total costs listed) are:
$4.57 million: Century Volga Public Service District, Barbour County. To address an old, deteriorating system through water line infrastructure replacement and extensions.
$3.45 million: Hardy County PSD. To upgrade a water treatment plant with a new pretreatment system in response to the water supply having consistently elevated levels of PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, an industrial chemical that has been linked to cancers and birth defects.
$3.82 million: Town of Gary, McDowell County. To address sanitary survey deficiencies, aging infrastructure and raw water concerns.
$3.69 million: Hardy County PSD. To develop a new secondary groundwater source on property adjacent to the Baker water treatment plant, to address harmful algae blooms.
$1.5 million:Â Lubeck PSD, Wood County. To install roughly 18,000 linear feet of water line for about 10 residential customers in an area where wells have been contaminated with PFOA.
Clean Water State Revolving Fund
The DEP Division of Water and Waste Management is the primary state agency that administers the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, with financial and support assistance provided by the West Virginia Water Development Authority.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund priority list was updated through analysis of community and financial aid needed, project schedule review to determine when the project could proceed to construction, and contact with potential loan recipients or their representatives.
Net available funds for fiscal year 2026 for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund are projected to total roughly $87.2 million, according to the state’s CWSRF Intended Use Plan.
McDowell, Logan, Wyoming, Boone and Mingo counties combined to have 19 projects listed among the highest-ranking 100 projects in the CWSRF Intended Use Plan, led by McDowell and Logan.
Those five counties also had 19 projects in the highest-ranking 100 projects in the fiscal year 2025 CWSRF Intended Use Plan.
The highest-ranking five projects in the fiscal year 2026 CWSRF Intended Use Plan (with total costs listed) are:
$25.1 million: City of Logan, Logan County. To address home sewage discharges and sewage seepage to the surface producing odors and health risks by improving the wastewater collection system and providing sewer service to the Stollings and McConnell communities.
$2.48 million: Town of Auburn, Ritchie County. To install treatment units to address raw sewer discharges degrading Bone Creek water quality.
$192 million: Huntington Sanitary Board, Cabell and Wayne counties. Wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
$2.6 million: City of Benwood, Marshall County. Installation of new sanitary and storm sewers in the North Benwood area.
$2.6 million: City of Benwood. Installation of new sanitary and storm sewers, with sewer rehabilitation in Boggs Run.
W.Va. has highest percentage of drinking water violations
West Virginia has the nation’s highest percentage of public water systems with drinking water violations, according to a March 2025 Gazette-Mail analysis of federal data.
Of West Virginia’s 831 public water systems, 622 — 74.8% — had drinking water violations in 2023, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, dwarfing the national average of 27.6%.
West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with drinking water violations was 18.5 percentage points higher than that of the second-highest state, Oklahoma, at 56.1%.
West Virginia had five more public water systems with drinking water violations than Virginia in 2023 despite having 2,032 fewer public water systems. Pennsylvania — the state with the highest rate of water systems with drinking water violations among West Virginia’s neighbors — had 45.3% of its systems fall in that category — nearly 30 percentage points fewer than the Mountain State’s total.
West Virginia had the country’s second-highest percentage of public health systems with health-based violations in 2023 — 26.1% — well above the national average of 4.8%. Only Louisiana’s 27.5% clip was higher. West Virginia had more than twice as many public water systems with health-based violations, 217, as neighbor Ohio’s 104 despite having 3,537 fewer systems.
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