Southern coalfield counties set for dearth of key state water project funding

What is clear is that the water is not.

“Our communities deserve better,� the Revs. Brad Davis and Caitlin Ware, of the West Virginia Faith Collective, a Christian-based advocacy group serving Southern West Virginia churches, said in a joint email Wednesday. “Our people deserve more.�

Regional water advocates point to thickened tap water ranging from orange to black and having to drive 20 minutes or more to gather spring water.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and private sampling in the region have shown the presence of E. coli and fecal coliform, contaminants that come only from human and animal fecal waste and are used to indicate whether other potentially harmful bacteria could be present.

Disease-causing microbes in E. coli and fecal coliform can cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea and headaches.

Sampling in McDowell and Wyoming counties has shown results at or above secondary drinking water standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for iron, manganese and aluminum. Secondary maximum contaminant levels are set as guidelines to help public water systems manage drinking water for aesthetic considerations like taste, color and odor.

Contaminants aren’t considered to pose a human health risk at the secondary maximum contaminant level, according to the EPA. DEP results have shown parameters associated with area coal mining activity are meeting state water quality standard criteria for both aquatic life and human health.

But the result, residents say, is water that ruins clothes, causes rashes and makes cooking and bathing potentially hazardous.

McDowell County’s rate of families below the poverty level — 28.9% — was highest in the state from 2018 to 2022, nearly triple the national rate of 11.9%. Wyoming County’s rate was 19%. Many residents rely on private septic systems. Contributing to fecal coliform bacteria in area waters are illegal homeowner sewage discharges by straight pipes or failing or leaking septic systems.

But McDowell and Wyoming counties are underrepresented as targets for key state sources of funding for water access expansion projects.

McDowell, Wyoming projects not top priorities

West Virginia’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund aims to address water quality problems through building, upgrading and expanding wastewater facilities.

In June 2024, the state submitted an intended use plan for the DEP-administered fund for state fiscal year 2025 to the EPA.

Projects requesting fund assistance are prioritized using a ranking system, with three categories — public health, regulatory compliance and affordability — used to determine project scoring. The highest-ranked projects on the priority list are contacted regarding their project status to determine if funding support is appropriate and the project is ready to proceed, according to the plan.

A Gazette-Mail review of the list found that despite rampant water concerns and disproportionately low income levels, McDowell and Wyoming counties have no projects among the list’s top nine entries.

None of those entries are from Southern West Virginia, where mining has been especially prevalent and has impacted water quality. Instead, the top entries are located in the north central or eastern parts of the state.

The highest-ranked entry from Southern West Virginia, placing 10th on the list, is a $9.4 million transmission and distribution restructuring project in Pineville that will extend water service from the Town of Pineville to unserved customers, including Baileysville Elementary School. The project will replace Brenton Public Service District, Green Camp Public Service District and Marianna Community Water, existing water systems that have had reliability and quality issues, according to the plan.

The state revolving fund amount for the project is $1.9 million, per the plan.

The highest-ranked entry for McDowell County comes in at No. 23 on the list: a $7.5 million McDowell Public Service District project in which an additional water treatment plant will be built to supplement another treatment plant completed in a previous phase of the project.

The state revolving fund loan amount for the project is $856,500, per the plan.

DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher said geographic location doesn’t influence selection of projects for funding. Projects are funded on a first-come, first-served basis, according to readiness to proceed, Fletcher said.

Fletcher noted the intended use plan offers better loan terms and more opportunities for principal forgiveness to more economically disadvantaged communities. These areas also have more co-funded projects, and projects cannot proceed to construction without all the necessary funding being committed.

But Fletcher added it’s not uncommon for applicants to withdraw from the program or decline funding if the community is unable or unwilling to bear associated sewage and water treatment costs.

McDowell Public Service District general manager Mavis Brewster said her district serving some 3,500 customers has drawn from a wide variety of funding sources, including the Appalachian Regional Commission, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Economic Development Administration at the federal level.

Brewster said her district has competed against itself in applying for multiple projects under some programs.

“[T]he need is so great that we feel like we have to try to get these projects out there,� Brewster said in a phone interview.

Brewster recalled that the district consisted of just 522 customers when formed in 1990 and 1,483 when she joined it 22 years ago.

“So we’re definitely expanding,� Brewster said. “We’re trying to reach as many areas in McDowell County as possible, because people have wells that are not in good quality water. Some of them have springs they’re using.�

Water quality violations common in McDowell

The McDowell Public Service District has been a frequent violator of health standards requiring routine drinking water quality monitoring.

The district’s website has posted notices it issued since March 2024 of failures to monitor for disinfectant byproduct precursors, lead, copper, nitrate, nitrite and volatile organic compound samples within compliance periods lasting up to a year or longer across six water systems.

The longest compliance period for which the district admitted a monitoring failure was a Jan. 1, 2021-Dec. 31, 2023, time frame for lead and copper testing for the Kimball and Tidewater water systems.

The notices acknowledge that the district cannot be sure of the quality of its drinking water during the given time periods, which have ranged from January 2021 through March 2024.

“We try not to have any errors, but you’re human, so things happen,� Brewster said.

Brewster cited improper bottle use for sampling, delay in results getting to a laboratory for analysis and sample loss at a lab as reasons behind some notices.

“It’s not anything that’s just neglect,� Brewster said.

But Brewster added the district needs more operators, lamenting what she and other water system leaders have said is a lingering issue of an aging state pool of registered operators that shoulder critical water quality responsibilities.

“The bottom line is you have a budget, too, that you have to follow, and in order to keep customer rates down, you have a limited staff,� Brewster said. “Sure, we could use many more, but you can only hire the people that you can provide a paycheck for. And if your rates don’t allow for additional staff, you just can’t hire them. You have to just do the best you can with what you have.�

Few McDowell, Wyoming projects get WDA funds

The West Virginia Water Development Authority is a revenue bond bank helping finance construction of water and wastewater facilities to local governmental agencies.

Water Development Authority executive director Marie Prezioso outlined the targets across 167 projects across the state of $427 million in approved funding through the authority’s Economic Enhancement Grant Fund in a Sept. 8 interim legislative session meeting.

Created in 2022, the fund appropriated federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to the authority for use on projects.

Members of the state Joint Standing Technology and Infrastructure Committee applauded the intended use of the funds.

But out of 167 projects listed statewide, just one is in McDowell County, with a $1.35 million fund allotment for a McDowell Public Service District sewer project. Only three projects are in Wyoming County totaling $5.93 million in support from the fund.

Prezioso told the Gazette-Mail following the Sept. 8 state lawmakers’ meeting she does not see a low number of projects seeking Water Development Authority support from McDowell and Wyoming county public service districts or other municipal systems.

‘The solution to this problem exists’

From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, a coalfield social justice initiative of the West Virginia Faith Collective, has called on Gov. Jim Justice to declare — and state lawmakers to push for — a state of emergency to ensure clean water access in the Anawalt water system in McDowell County, where discolored water has plagued the community.

Justice’s office has not responded to a request for comment on the call for a state of emergency.

Prezioso said the McDowell Public Service District is working with engineers to design a project to replace the aged existing waterlines in various locations in the Anawalt area.

Brewster said an application had been submitted for a project to replace the existing water system serving Anawalt and Jenkinjones, another McDowell community.

Prezioso said the public service district will need to decide whether the project can be done in one or two phases and that it will probably depend on grant funding available.

But Davis and Ware say it’s unacceptable that community residents are dealing with an unreliable system and a lack of access to clean water while “awaiting a ‘solution’ that never comes.�

They pointed out the Governor’s Office has boasted a budget surplus it pegged at $701.1 million in June and in July declared a state of emergency in response to extreme drought conditions for all 55 counties aimed partly at aiding farmers.

Meanwhile, southern coalfield communities are depending on monthly water donations from private citizens and organizations for bathing, drinking and cooking.

From Below and other water access advocate groups which have been soliciting donations estimate community members have funded the distribution of over 2,000 cases of water (more than 82,000 bottles) to 280-plus homes in McDowell County since May 2024.

“No West Virginian, especially those who built this state on their broken backs and blackened lungs, should be forced to deal with unclean, unsafe, unusable water. The solution to this problem exists,� Davis and Ware said. “[W]e urge the state to act on it.�