Court OKs WV water authority grant for out-of-state Catholic school after changes

The Economic Enhancement Grant Fund was created in 2022 via House Bill 4566, which established the fund through $250 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades as well as what the law calls “infrastructure projects to enhance economic development and/or tourism.�

The American Humanist Association in January 2025 sued the Water Development Authority in Kanawha County Circuit Court over its $5 million award for the College of St. Joseph the Worker, claiming it violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

Lindsay ruled that the college’s plan in its grant proposal to use $2.65 million for advocacy activities that included a think tank to support “broadly life-affirming policy in West Virginia� and proposals for the West Virginia Legislature and education activities violated the Establishment Cause in the West Virginia Constitution and U.S. Constitution separating church and state.

Lindsay on Sept. 25 removed the case from the court docket after the Water Development Authority provided documentation indicating the grant funding awarded in October 2024 would not be used for what he found would be unconstitutional “religious specific" student education, enrollment and advocacy.

Instead, the grant will be used to satisfy a grant agreement that approved a narrower use of the funding than what the college had proposed.

The Water Development Authority support for the College of St. Joseph the Worker attracted criticism from clean water advocates who said it was evidence of state officials not placing a high enough priority on water and wastewater infrastructure within West Virginia’s borders.

The College of St. Joseph the Worker grant drew attention to the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund frequently being tapped to support non-water and non-sewer projects in a state with disproportionately high rates of drinking water violations and cash-strapped public service districts struggling to provide potable water.

“This win is important in addressing how funds continuously fail to go toward the most vulnerable in our state,� said the Rev. Caitlin Ware, codirector of From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, a coalfield social justice initiative of the West Virginia Faith Collective.

How the college planned to use $1M on advocacy  

The $5 million grant to the college was $3.74 million more than the next-largest Water Development Authority grant among 28 disbursed during fiscal year 2025, according to authority records. The college was the only recipient out of 28 not based in West Virginia, per authority records. Most recipients were towns, cities and public service districts getting support for water and wastewater improvement projects.

The court noted an invoice for the $5 million grant produced by the college distributed the grant in four parts:

• $2.35 million for a nonprofit construction and real estate company and extension of a branch campus in West Virginia
• $1.65 million for student education and enrollment
• $1 million for advocacy

The college combines a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies with instruction in construction trades. The school’s Economic Enhancement Grant proposal indicated the school planned to use $1 million of its $5 million grant for “advocacy activities� that included building a research center called “The Center for the Common Good.�

The college said in its West Virginia expansion proposal that its faculty have been “involved in supporting the developing conservative political vision for West Virginia� and cited “the abortion restriction� and “solidarity with Texas’ border.�

In 2022, then-Gov. Jim Justice signed into law a near-total abortion ban passed by the Legislature. In 2023, Justice approved up to 50 West Virginia National Guard soldiers and airmen to deploy to Texas for up to 30 days in response to a request by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican, as part of support from the nation’s governors to respond to what Abbott claimed in a letter to Justice and other state chief executives was a “flood of illegal border activity.�

Human rights advocates have said the Texas law enforcement operation the Justice administration supported, Operation Lone Star, has criminalized migrants seeking safety, driven mass incarceration of people of color, relied on racial profiling and violated civil rights and anti-torture standards by holding migrants in jails without access to medical care or sufficient food.

The college said in another document the Gazette-Mail obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request that the Economic Enhancement Grant would “enable a significant development� in its advocacy efforts, calling its Center for the Common Good a “mature think-tank� that would “support research, policy data, op-eds, speech writing, educational tools (videos, et al), lectures, presentations, and proposals for the West Virginia Legislature.�

In a July evidentiary hearing, Marie Prezioso, executive director of the Water Development Authority, testified the authority requested the college amend an initial invoice to accurately reflect uses of the grant according to a grant agreement that more narrowly allowed uses of “acquiring and constructing educational and training facilities … to facilitate economic development.�

But the court noted the college didn’t respond to the Water Development Authority’s request and the authority awarded the college the entire $5 million grant despite the college’s silence.

How college backtracked on advocacy plan 

After the evidentiary hearing, at the request of the court, the authority produced an amended invoice from the college indicating the grant would be used only for "real estate acquisition, site development, construction, infrastructure improvements, and supplies and equipment for workforce training and all necessary appurtenances thereto in compliance with the WVWDA grant agreement."

In a letter to Prezioso dated July 16, College of St. Joseph the Worker President Mike Sullivan said the college understood it “may not spend grant money on political or religious ‘advocacy’ of any kind� or “spend grant money on teacher or instructor salaries or anything else not listed in the Grant Agreement.�

“The College has fully complied with these restrictions and remains committed to doing so,� Sullivan wrote.

Lindsay cited the amended invoice and Sullivan’s pledge in his Sept. 25 order that granted summary judgment to the Water Development Authority, finding that “no question of constitutional law or infirmity remains.�

“WDA is very pleased with Judge Lindsay’s decision,� Prezioso said in an emailed statement. “We always felt that the grant agreement was very specific about what the grant funds could be used for, namely, economic and workforce development.�

Records the Gazette-Mail obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests revealing official state communications with school leaders and project authorizations showed no written approval from the secretaries of the departments of Commerce, Economic Development or Tourism, as required by HB 4566.

American Humanist Association executive director Fish Stark said his group was satisfied the court found the original grant unconstitutional and maintained that state funds cannot be spent on religious instruction in the future, “even if the funding restrictions could have cut deeper.�

“This was always an affront to West Virginian taxpayers, which is why we took action when our members saw this blatant violation of church-state separation happening in their community,� Stark said in a statement.

Stark questioned offering any subsidies to a religious school whose construction costs he contended could be covered by the Catholic Church while West Virginia families “still struggle to access clean water and basic needs.�

Rusty Williams, advocacy director at the ACLU of West Virginia, which brought the case on the American Humanist Association’s behalf, called on the state in response to Lindsay’s ruling to “prioritize the needs of West Virginians, not the wants of religious institutions, in future decision-making.�

“[I]t is unconscionable that [West Virginians’] tax dollars were intended to go to an out-of-state entity for purposes that would have violated our Constitution,� Williams said in a statement.

Sullivan did not respond to a request for comment.

'Let justice roll on'

Many Economic Enhancement Grant Fund recipients have been towns, cities and public service districts getting support for water and wastewater improvement projects.

But recipients not falling in those categories have received tens of millions of dollars.

Of $432.4 million awarded through the fund via American Rescue Plan Act monies as of Dec. 19, just over $80 million, or 19%, was awarded to projects listed as economic development projects rather than water or sewer projects, according to Water Development Authority records. Of 161 projects awarded, 28, or 17%, were economic development projects rather than water or sewer enterprises.

Of those 161 projects, just four — 2.5% — were for water or sewer projects in Boone, Logan, McDowell, Mingo or Wyoming counties. Those are West Virginia’s southern coalfield counties struggling with dwindling populations and, accordingly, shrinking ratepayer bases to support water and wastewater infrastructure improvements.

Meanwhile, during fiscal year 2023, the Water Development Authority approved $4.38 million for renovations at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington and $3.8 million for a new Marshall University baseball stadium. Both projects were categorized as “economic development� projects.

Southern coalfield counties also have been underrepresented in funding sought by the state for its Drinking Water State Revolving Fund created by the Legislature in 1997 to help finance the cost of infrastructure needed to comply with federal Safe Drinking Water Act requirements and protect public health.

In June 2025, the state submitted an Intended Use Plan for the state Department of Environmental Protection-administered fund for state fiscal year 2026 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Projects requesting fund assistance are prioritized using a ranking system. Three categories — public health, regulatory compliance and affordability — were used to determine project scoring.

A Gazette-Mail review of the list has found that despite rampant water concerns and disproportionately low income levels, McDowell and Wyoming counties had two and zero projects, respectively, among the list’s top 50 entries. Residents in those counties have reported discolored, foul-smelling water the DEP has held doesn’t violate water quality standard criteria for human health or aquatic life.

Ware understands that state revolving fund support through the Water Development Authority must be applied for and that many communities can't afford to pay back program loans.

“[B]ut if the state wanted to ensure all West Virginians had access to clean water, they would find ways to do it, and they haven’t,� Ware said.

Ware questioned how southern coalfield communities are supposed to enhance economic development, the stated goal of the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund, when they can’t afford basic water and wastewater infrastructure.

“Let justice roll on like a river,� Ware said, “and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.�