By Stephen Smoot
One of the biggest problems lurking under the sidewalks, yards, and roads of a large number of West Virginia municipalities lies in old and crumbling water and sewer systems. Lumberport, for example, in Harrison County, has struggled with both over the past two years with sewage spills and contaminated water problems afflicting the system.
Closer to home in Franklin, as Town Recorder Bruce Minor described in a recent meeting, that municipality must contend with the unexpectedly poor quality of pipes bought in the 1990s; when purchased they were considered top of the line. Additionally, rising standards imposed by the federal and state governments can also push systems into required upgrades.
Water problems everywhere and only limited resources to keep cities and towns from the brink.
Wardensville on the day before Christmas Eve received word that the Town would have to go on an indefinite water boil notice. A year and a half ago, the Town received word that it had 18 months to clear up a condition in which it was found that surface water directly fed into the groundwater relied upon as a source. Officially, this is referred to as “groundwater under direct influence” or GWUDI.
Most surface water runs through the natural purifying action of soils before ending up in groundwater. Surface water carries the potential for microbes and pollutants that could get into drinking water, hence the boil advisory.
On Christmas Eve, Wardensville Mayor Betsy Orndorf-Sayers released a statement explaining that “this is not the Christmas message I prefer. I received email notification today that our water utility is now on a permanent boil water notice. This notice is being issued because we did not get our new treat plant operational within 18 months of receiving a GWUDI determination.”
To come from underneath the order, the Town of Wardensville must complete two tasks, get the new water system online and drill a new well to an approved groundwater source.
As the Mayor explained, “Our bacteriological tests have had negative findings. The system is checked twice a day to ensure the chemical levels and PH are within range. There have been no findings of contaminants in excess of established safety standards in the water.” GWDUI does not mean that contaminants are present, but that they easily could be.
The initial statement also included the expectation that both the portable water plant and also the new well could be online this month, while a backup well tapping a different source could be completed by the fall of this year.
Prior to the issue of the notice, the Town worked along two tracks to rectify the situation before it reached the point of a mandatory indefinite water boil advisory. It both endeavored to comply with the order as quickly as possible and also argue that the 18 month period is insufficient in this day and age to complete a public works project.
Originally, the finding of GWDUI occurred in August 2019 with the 18 month deadline put in place a that point. According to an attorney with Bowles-Rice representing the Town of Wardensville, the deadline was acknowledged as more of a nudge by the State to initiate the process than a hard and fast mark.
“The Town initiated a very large and comprehensive project in 2020 . . . to replace nearly its entire system to address water quality and service,” stated Bowles Rice on behalf of the Town. In that timeframe, it had “to obtain an engineer . . . obtain all necessary permits and approvals for the design of the project, bid the project subject to applicable procurement requirements, and then complete the entire construction of the project.”
Bowles Rice did not mention the extra issues involved in trying to conduct all of these tasks in 2020 and 2021.
Interestingly the same Bureau of Public Health that issued guidance to the Town on how to comply also serves as a member of the Infrastructure Jobs and Development Council that often assists communities in funding such projects. Bowles Rice pointed out that the plan submitted to the IJDC spelled out that customary wait times for various aspects of the project would extend it well past 18 months, but that the BPH issued no comment at the time.
Furthermore the West Virginia Department of Highways, in preparation for the upcoming extension of Corridor H/US Route 48, required the Town to undertake extra work to mitigate issues arising from that construction.
In the meantime, the Town continued to work toward compliance as BPH issued orders for various public notices related to the water system.
In November, the Bureau of Public Health informed the Town that it should have issued the mandatory boil water notice exactly 18 months after the August 2019 communication. Bowles Rice’s letter stated that “what appears to be occurring in this matter is that the Town . . . is effectively being punished for the ordinary time it takes to complete projects.” It warned before the fact that the water boil notice, based “on the most vague and incomprehensible requirement” issued on Dec 23 “would only cause needless public confusion and frustration” while “undermining the good name of the Town and the work it has undertaken.”
Funding for municipal projects on this scale almost always requires a cobbling together of different sources. In the same Town of Franklin meeting referred to earlier, Minor shared with their Council that “the State likes you to have skin in the game.” This means that State funding sources expect that the municipality will either pony up some of its own funds or acquire assistance from other sources.
In the case of Wardensville, that “skin” came in the form of loans and bond issuances to supplement other aid, as well as from rate increases. In most cases, State aid comes with the insistence that some sort of rate increase be approved by the municipal government.
An issue related to rate increases lies in the fact that a baseline cost comes with operating such systems. Municipalities, especially those like Wardensville and Franklin with populations under 600, struggle to hold down rate increases because the cost of operation is divided amongst fewer rate payers. Franklin faces challenges with 540 customers while Wardensville only has 389.
