American Water To Assess Massive Leaks In Wayne

Roughly a million gallons of water is released to residents and businesses through the town of Wayne’s water system each day. The problem is, about 700,000 gallons of that water never reaches its destination, thanks to significant leakage in the system.  

That’s according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey who toured the region last week as part of his two day Water Listening Tour.  

“You know what that means?” Morrisey asked on a video his office released on Thursday. “That means that citizens are paying more for water they’re not even getting. That’s a huge problem. It hurts the water system. It hurts consumers. It’s not the right way to proceed.” 

In order to help address the problem, Morrisey announced on the video that his office has reached out to officials with West Virginia-American Water, who will send a team to analyze where the leaks are. 

“Once we identify the leaks, then we’re in a much better position to actually recommend the solutions and make sure that we’re not compromising all that water literally going down the drain,” Morrisey said. 

Wayne County Commission President Travis Thompson is pleased the town is getting some assistance with a problem that’s been costly for the town and its 1,400 residents. 

“Really it’s impacting the bottom dollar more than anything,” Thompson said. “They’re spending a lot of money either producing water or purchasing and they’re only getting 30% of the water that they’re paying for out to the customers. This should be a significant cost savings.” 

A team from American Water is expected to begin the leak survey on Monday, and will provide the results of their findings to the Wayne Public Service District.