Eastern Panhandle Story Archives - Page 21 of 30 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Proponents Say Railroad Deal Could Boost W.Va.'s Economy, Attract Jobs To Eastern Panhandle

Colorado-based OmniTRAX, a freight-only transportation company that links several railroads from coast to coast in the U.S., purchased the Winchester & Western Railroad for $105 million in September.

The railroad runs through part of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the purchase is expected to improve West Virginia’s economy by attracting more businesses to the Eastern Panhandle.

The Winchester & Western Railroad has been around since 1916. It stretches from southern New Jersey, through Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, covering about 100 miles.

Winchester & Western Railroad employee and Berkeley County native Eddie McKee said the interchange at Corning Way in Martinsburg is critical to the operation of the Winchester & Western.

“This is just about the center of the railroad, and the majority of our customers is right in this area, within five miles,” McKee said.

Two of those customers are the Argos cement plant and Procter & Gamble, both in Martinsburg.

McKee thinks OmniTRAX will increase the customer-base for the Winchester & Western Railroad, reaching more industrial companies that will rely on their rail service.

“Basically, it’s another company that we didn’t have, like Procter & Gamble. I mean, Procter & Gamble come here, brand new, OmniTRAX is brand new to West Virginia. So, it’s a win-win for West Virginia. They have so many resources that it’s great,” he said.

Part of the Winchester & Western Railroad at Corning Way in Martinsburg.

OmniTRAX is headquartered in Denver and owns 23 railroads all over the U.S. and in parts of Canada. It also owns more than 500 short line and regional railroads. About 350 industrial customers like P&G, steel companies, and oil and natural gas companies use those railroads to ship their goods.

But the Winchester & Western Railroad is only their second line in the northeast.

“For OmniTRAX, it gets us a dot on the map in a market that we’ve been interested in for a very long time,” Ean Johnson, Vice President of Economic Development at OmniTRAX, said in an interview via Skype.

Johnson said a major benefit in purchasing Winchester & Western is the rail’s proximity to more than 100 million people within a day’s drive. He said that’s a huge draw for potential manufacturing companies looking for a new place to set up shop.

“It’s providing access to market, which then allows our customers to make those strategic decisions to locate their facilities,” he said.

And those facilities that look to locate near the Winchester & Western Railroad will help to diversify West Virginia’s economy, bringing more jobs to the Eastern Panhandle area, Johnson said.

“Oftentimes those jobs are well-paying manufacturing jobs that stick around communities for a very long time.”

The Winchester & Western Railroad is considered a short line, and it’s made up of two divisions. The first is the Virginia Division. It has 53 miles of track running through the Shenandoah Valley and moves about 12,500 carloads per year. The second is the New Jersey Division. It has 47 miles and moves 8,500 carloads per year.

The New Jersey Division interconnects with the Winchester & Western Railroad in Martinsburg. Both divisions have connections to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – two major railroads called Class 1s.

The purchase of the Winchester & Western gave OmniTRAX a total of 470 railcars and seven locomotives to add to their overall operation, and the company also picked up about 60 employees through the Winchester & Western.

Berkeley County officials are also glad to see the purchase.

Sandy Hamilton, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority, said that for years the Winchester & Western Railroad was underutilized, but she thinks OmniTRAX will help the railroad and the communities around it grow.

“We have a gem here. We have a great line that would cost billions of dollars to replicate it,” she said.

Hamilton notes OmniTRAX will bring in new capital, resources, and support to the railroad, and she believes the impact will filter out throughout West Virginia.

“They have some exciting ideas, they have exciting connections, and I think it’ll be someone good that we can partner with to market.”

But in terms of actual dollar amount, the total economic impact for the community is yet to be determined.

MARC Funding Deadline Passes, Maryland Keeps Current Service In W.Va. For Now

Nov. 30 was the deadline for West Virginia to provide $2.3 million to the Maryland Department of Transportation to keep the Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) at its current service. Otherwise, the service in West Virginia would be reduced from six trains per weekday to two.

But it’s unclear if an agreement was reached.

In an emailed statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the Maryland Transit Administration said that MARC is still operating normally in West Virginia, and they would not “implement any change in service without first issuing a 30-day notice.”

The MTA also stated that they remain open to discussions with the West Virginia Rail Authority on “any concerns regarding the proposed service change.”

During the 2019 state Legislative session, Maryland requested $3.4 million to keep the MARC service in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the Legislature agreed to fund $1.1 million. In August, Maryland announced they would reduce service unless the remaining amount was paid.

In October, Gov. Jim Justice told local municipalities in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties that if they managed to come up with $300,000, his office would fund the remaining $2 million. But, only about $260,000 was pulled together before the Nov. 30 deadline.

The Governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment before this story was published.

In Morgan County, the Economic Development Authority approved a resolution last week asking Maryland to extend MARC service into Morgan County as a possible funding solution.

The Morgan County EDA cited increased ridership opportunities, increased revenues and increased job opportunities as a few of the benefits of expansion.

Executive Director Daryl Cowles, who’s also a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said they haven’t received a response from Maryland or Gov. Justice on this proposal.

Currently, the MARC train only serves two counties in West Virginia: Berkeley and Jefferson.

Today, at least 250 West Virginians commute to work using the MARC train during the week, according to the Maryland Transit Administration. It’s been serving West Virginia commuters living in the Eastern Panhandle since the 1970s, but West Virginia has largely never paid for the service except through tickets and upkeep of its West Virginia stations.

More Than 180 Years Later, 'Eelway' To Help American Eel Return Further Upstream

At the end of Vineyard Road in Falling Waters, West Virginia, there is an old, stone and brick structure on the Potomac River. This small, historic building is a hydroelectric power plant owned by Cube Hydro Partners based in Maryland. Beside the structure is ‘Dam #5.’

The dam, owned by the National Park Service, stretches the width of the river – from the West Virginia side to the Maryland side. It is 20 feet tall and was originally built in the 1830s.

While the dam provides electricity, it has also had an unintended consequence.

“Almost 85 percent of the American eel’s upstream habitat has been lost due to dams,” David Sutherland, coastal program biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said. “So, there’s basically been a coastwide decline in American eel populations.”

This decline in American eel is why Sutherland and other officials started an initiative 15 years ago called the American Eel Restoration Project. The project works to install things called “eelways” – like byways, but for eels.

An eelway is almost operational at Dam #5. It is an aluminum ramp that is 65 feet long, and it has been secured to the side of the power plant. The ramp will have water running through it, and eels will be able to climb it. Once they reach the top, they will slide down a PVC pipe into a 250-gallon water tank.

“We’ll either be able to monitor them; they’ll be captured in a mesh bag, or if the mesh bag isn’t in there, they’ll be able to migrate right through the tank and upstream through a pipe and then back to the river,” Sutherland said.

The eels are unharmed when caught, and they are always released, Sutherland said.

The eelway will empty into this 250-gallon water tank. A pipe will connect the eelway to the tank, and then another pipe will connect the tank to the river.

The American eel lives most of its life in freshwater, and then migrates back into saltwater to lay their eggs. By the time the eels reach Dam #5 in Falling Waters, they’ve journeyed for 4 to 7 years from the Sargasso Sea, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the Potomac River, they will grow and mature. Sutherland said the further upstream eel can travel, the safer they are.

“Historically, 25 to 50 percent of the biomass in these headwater streams, upstream of Dam #5 here, used to be American eels. They’re primarily female eels; they metamorphose by the time they get up this far. They’re maturing, becoming silver eels and they’re ready to be out migrating with upwards of 9 million eggs.”

But without access to these headwater streams, these eels have been more susceptible to predators like flathead catfish, walleye, or blue catfish.

That’s why an eelway is important for their survival, especially if a historic dam like Dam #5 is unlikely to be removed.

The top of the 65-foot-long eelway at Dam #5.

The American eel does more for our water than we might realize. American eel help to transport larvae of the freshwater mussel, which help to clean water.

A single mussel can filter 10-15 gallons of water every day, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But baby mussels can’t travel far without hitching a ride on a fish’s gills, and the American eel offers an appealing one.

“American eels are critical for the ecosystem services they provide, especially with their relationship to freshwater mussels,” Tanner Haid, Eastern Panhandle Field Coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said.

Haid points out that West Virginia is a headwater state, meaning the water here flows out to many other people in states around us.

He said it’s for this reason that opening more travel ways for American eel and by extension, freshwater mussels, is vital to keeping our water clean.

“No matter where you are in our state, our water is connected to tens of millions of people. So, we have to acknowledge that role and do everything we can to protect that water at the source, and do these sort of habitat restoration projects to protect critical species,” Haid said.

The eelway is secured to the side of Cube Hydro’s power plant.

Once complete,the eelway at Dam #5 is expected to have cost about $150,000. That covers designing, construction, and installation. Sutherland said it will be the first year-round eelway in West Virginia.

5,000 to 10,000 eels are expected to migrate through it a year.

Dam #5’s eelway will also effectively open about 8,000 more river miles to the American Eel, according to Sutherland.

The eelway is expected to be operational by early spring 2020.

**Editor’s Note: This story was edited on Dec. 6, 2019 to correct the amount of water filtered daily by freshwater mussels.

Jefferson County Woman Walks 70 Miles Across Denmark To Protest Rockwool

Residents in the Eastern Panhandle continue to protest Denmark-based, stone wool manufacturing facility, Rockwool. For more than a year now, hundreds of residents still rally at commission and town council meetings in Jefferson County and at the Rockwool construction site – in an effort to stop the plant from being built.

Recently, a Shepherdstown resident traveled to Denmark to walk 70 miles from Kalundborg to Copenhagen to protest the facility.

Tracy Danzey is a mother of an 8-year-old and a registered nurse. She’s also the president of the anti-Rockwool group, Resist Rockwool. A few years ago, one of her legs had to be amputated after contracting a rare form of bone cancer, which she said was caused by pollution from heavy industry in her former home of Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Shepherdstown resident Tracy Danzey in Denmark.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting spoke with Danzey via Skype, just before she finished her 11-day walk over the weekend.

“I am walking in the American tradition of marching for justice,” Danzey said in the interview. “My experience of being poisoned by industry is a huge motivator. As a nurse, my focus is often on health and the health of the community around me.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to Rockwool for comment. Rockwool spokesperson Michael Zarin emailed a statement stating Rockwool invited Danzey to their headquarters in Denmark. He said the Danish factory uses the same core technology that will be used in Jefferson County.

“It is unfortunate that Tracy Danzey did not accept our invitation to visit the ROCKWOOL factory in northern Denmark or meet with us at our headquarters,” Zarin said via email. “The Danish factory uses the same core technology as will be used in Jefferson County. This would have been a prime opportunity for Ms. Danzey to see first-hand a similar facility in operation.”

Danzey did not accept that invitation, but instead invited Rockwool to visit Jefferson County to address community concerns.

“I came here to speak with the Danish people,” Danzey said via text message to West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “Rockwool has had over a year to reach out and be willing to chat, and they have consistently been unavailable and dishonest to our citizenry and representation. Additionally, though I can speak to the health concerns as a nurse, and the potential violation of the industry from a personal health standpoint, I would not feel comfortable touring a facility and representing my community in this way alone. I am not an industrial specialist and would have to depend on what I was being told. [Rockwool] has been so dishonest with our community that it would only be proper that some of our community’s own specialists attend these tours and meetings with me.”

Rockwool in Ranson, Jefferson County is expected to offer 150 new jobs and be completed by mid-2020, according to Rockwool’s North American President Trent Ogilvie.

The facility would feature two, 21-story smokestacks releasing a range of chemicals and will be located just a few miles from four public schools.

Residents are concerned about the potential health and environmental risks to the area. Rockwool states their technology is state of the art and that air quality is a top priority.

“Air quality is one of our top priorities & primary reason for constructing tall stacks in Ranson,” Rockwool said on their Twitter page on Aug. 3, 2018. “Tall stacks improve the dispersion of the steam plume and thus reduce particulate and other matter that might reach people on the ground.”

Since the facility broke ground in June 2018, there have been several pending lawsuits filed from opposition groups, rallies and an overall division within communities in the Eastern Panhandle.

Hundreds Attend Public Hearing On MARC Train, Ask To Give W.Va. More Time

A few hundred people attended a public hearing in Charles Town over the weekend regarding the future of the MARC train service, or Maryland Area Regional Commuter, in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle. Maryland is asking West Virginia to either foot the bill or see a reduction in service.

The MARC train, based in Maryland, has six trains that service West Virginia every weekday. It’s been serving West Virginia commuters living in the Eastern Panhandle since the 1970s, but West Virginia has largely never paid for the service. Ridership over the years has declined, but an estimated 250 West Virginians use the train daily, according to the Maryland Transit Administration, or MTA.

The MTA is requesting $3.4 million from West Virginia or it will cut four of those six trains starting on Nov. 4.

Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said many at the hearing want the MTA to give West Virginia at least one more year to find the money and keep the service as it is.

“If it is cut back, some people would probably lose their jobs. Many people would in fact clog the highways with even more cars than there are now,” Doyle said.

Sen. Finance Chairman Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said the MARC train is a positive for West Virginia, and he agrees that more time would be helpful to sort out the situation, however, he said he thinks it is unlikely the MTA will give that additional time.

Blair urges local municipalities and stakeholders to work together to find a local funding solution to keep the train service running.

“They need to actually help, too, and that’s where the money could potentially come from,” he said.

Blair also said he feels the West Virginia State Rail Authority should collect a “true” headcount of West Virginia riders. Blair and other officials argue there are more riders than the 250 claimed by the MTA.

Maryland Department of Transportation MTA will accept written comments through Oct. 7. Comments can be sent by mail emailed to HearingComments@mdot.maryland.gov.

During this public comment period, the agency said it is open to discussions with the West Virginia Rail Authority regarding the proposed changes.

How Protecting Civil War Battlefields Helps Protect Drinking Water

After the 2014 Elk River chemical spill in the Kanawha Valley, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition created the Safe Water WV initiative. The idea is simple: to strengthen a community’s connection to their drinking water and encourage them to work together to better protect it.

A couple years ago, Jefferson and Berkeley Counties decided to build off that initiative in a unique way – using the conservation of farmland and Civil War battlefields as a model for drinking water protection.

About two miles from the heart of Shepherdstown is the site of the bloodiest battle in West Virginia during the American Civil War. More than 600 Union and Confederate soldiers died in a two-day battle in September 1862.

The Battle of Shepherdstown may have been small in comparison to other battles of the Civil War, but historians agree, the battle not only halted the Confederates’ northern invasion, but it also opened the door for President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Since 2011, the site of the Battle of Shepherdstown has been a protected historic landmark. The battle site also happens to be at a unique location – along the Potomac River. The Potomac provides drinking water to Shepherdstown residents, and other nearby areas.

“The Landmarks Commission owns about a half-mile of the Potomac River frontage,” Martin Burke said.

This map shows details of the attacks and soldier divisions during the Battle of Shepherdstown. A marker for the cement mill can be seen along the Potomac River.

Burke is the chairman of the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission – the group responsible for protecting the site of the Battle of Shepherdstown.

“Controlling the runoff, planting trees, all helps improve water quality.”

That’s why his group, along with the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board, the Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board, and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition decided two years ago to work together. They started an initiative called the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative in the Eastern Panhandle.

“We formed the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative to bring together, for the very first time, water utilities, land conservation organizations, and watershed groups to take a collaborative approach to protecting drinking water using the conservation of land, and protecting land forever, to protect our drinking water sources,” Tanner Haid said.

Haid is the Eastern Panhandle Field Coordinator for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.

The initiative focuses on using land conservation easements to protect drinking water. A conservation easement is a voluntary private or government contract with a landowner to protect land for ecological reasons – to improve water quality, maintain a historic site, or protect wildlife.

Haid said this approach makes drinking water protections stronger, because land conservation easements help to prevent potential contamination threats or development that could impact a source water intake.

In Jefferson County alone, there are more than 16,000 acres of battlefield land that have been identified, according to the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission. Only 861 acres of that is currently protected.

Liz Wheeler is the Director of the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board. Her organization administers conservation easements to protect historic farmland and battlefields in Jefferson County.

“When we protect land, we’re not just protecting cropland. We’re protecting woodland, we’re protecting streams, we’re protecting historic resources, so it fits into what we do; to be able to contribute to source water protection,” Wheeler said.

But the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative in the Eastern Panhandle doesn’t come without its challenges. Finding enough money to protect the land can be the biggest challenge, but so can educating landowners about their options if they qualify for a conservation easement or historic status.

Haid said, in the coming year, he and his team hope to identify and prioritize areas of land in the Eastern Panhandle not currently protected that are close to drinking water areas.

“And then in particular, closest to the water intake or the utilities who draw up the water, because those are the areas most threatened by development and actions that we take on our land that has an impact on our water quality,” Haid said.

Jefferson and Berkeley Counties are among the most successful in the state for land conservation, according to West Virginia Rivers. Together, these counties have protected more than 10,000 acres of land.

West Virginia Rivers said, so far, they haven’t collected data on how water quality has improved through the Safe Water Conservation Collaborative in the Eastern Panhandle, but over the past two years, they have signed up 30 partner organizations interested in the project.

The group hopes this model – to protect water by conserving land – isn’t just for the Eastern Panhandle but could be used across the state.