Water samples taken from the Greenbrier River did not show dangerous levels of diesel, the Charleston Gazette is reporting.
This means the water intakes will be turned back on to refill the tanks and restore water pressure.
Earlier today, Al Whitaker said that after the intakes are turned on, residents will be boil water advisory for at least three days.
The pending weather is moving water distribution sites in Greenbrier County indoors. About 12,000 residents in the Lewisburg area don’t have access to water in their homes. Residents in need of water should bring their own containers to fill up at the following sites:
Monday Until 7 p.m.
Fairlea, W.Va. – West Virginia State Fairgrounds
Ronceverte, W.Va. – Island Park
Tuesday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Ronceverte, W.Va. – Island Park
National Guard Armory close to Lewisburg Airport on Industrial Drive
Weather Moves Distribution Center
Al Whitaker, Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Greenbrier County, says the weather is pushing distribution indoors.
The two tanks at the West Virginia State Fairgrounds are being moved to the National Guard Armory, which sits close to the Lewisburg Airport on Industrial Drive.
Greenbrier residents without drinking water should bring their own containers to the Armory beginning Tuesday at 7 a.m. Water will be distributed from 7 in the morning until 7 at night throughout the crisis.
Folks can also find water at Island Park in Ronceverte from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., again bring your own containers.
Whitaker says he’s received donations from organizations in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia as well as the Red Cross.
The Lewisburg Water Department intakes was shut down after a truck spilled diesel into Anthony Creek, a tributary to the Greenbrier River. The intakes were shut down while officials wait on water quality tests from a laboratory. If the tests are clean, the intakes will reopen. After pumping begins, it’s expected to take 24 hours for the water to reach homes.
Whitaker says residents can expect a boil water advisory of 3 days when service is restored.
While the chemical spill in Charleston left 300-thousand people without access to clean water, folks in the coalfields deal with water issues every day. We heard from folks in McDowell communities living off dated water systems that frequently go without water. Some communities have been on boil water advisories for years.
Credit Infrastructure
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Infrastructure
Region One Planning and Development Council planned water and sewer projects.
Eric Combs with the Region One Planning and Development Council says there are 58 water and sewer projects expected in the near to distant future in McDowell, Wyoming, Monroe, Summers, and Mercer Counties.
“There is a great need through out the whole but it seems like there is a greater need per say in Southern West Virginia,” he said.
One re-occurring challenge is replacing dated systems left behind by coal companies. Jennifer Hause with the West Virginia Water Research Institute can vouch for the system in Gary, her hometown. Hause says during the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s her father maintained the water system as an employee of U.S. Steel. Around that time, the company began to pull out and close mines in the area. In this video, local historian and Wyoming County Circuit Clerk David “Bugs” Stover explains that the region has an abundance of water. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMiOH856-M8
It’s a common story throughout the coalfields of West Virginia although some communities didn’t necessarily keep water operators. In neighboring Wyoming, County Clerk Mike Goode explains.
“As the coal companies moved out they abandoned those utilities and the citizens had to take over those,” Goode said.
Goode and other elected officials made it a priority to replace the coal camp water systems and is proud to share success stories about places like Copperston, Wyoming and Glover where it was the folks in the communities making the repairs and doing what had to be done, to get water in their homes.
“Those people would get out in the middle of the night older people you know 70 and 80 years old in the middle of the night they’re out digging up a water lines trying to fix a leak. It’s not supposed to be that way in America.”
Despite the struggle to maintain these dated, crumbling systems, throughout the region, it seems the communities left with the coal company plumbing were the fortunate ones. Some places don’t have systems at all. But they make do with what they have. Jennifer Hause paints the picture she saw at Coal Mountain on the Wyoming, McDowell County border a few years ago.
"Their source of water was a reused gasoline tank that set up on the hillside that collected water from a spring," she said, "then a series of garden hosed brought it down the hill basically to another storage tank that someone would go and add a few gallons of bleach to ever so often.”
Hause says it’s pretty typical for the coalfield region.
Residents are resourceful and resilient with these circumstances. For some folks, it’s the Abandoned coal mines are often used for a source of drinking water too.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A pipe comes out of an old coal mine in Itmann in Wyoming County where some folks gather drinking water.
like this one in Itmann in Wyoming County where a pipe comes out of the side of the mountain on the side of the road.
Folks often stop to fill up. County Circuit Clerk David Bugs Stover grew up just a few miles from here in Pierpoint.
Abandoned coal mines are often used for a source of drinking water like the one at Pierpoint in Wyoming County, where County Circuit Clerk David Bugs Stover grew up.
“All that water gravity feeds and sometimes it’s treated and sometimes it’s not,” Stover said.
Stover says it was a true community system with its own set of challenges.
“I remember one time my mom didn’t have water for 3 months,” he said. “It can almost drive you to the point of insane.”
“So as much as I felt and did feel for the folks in Charleston, I know what it’s like to go months and if you want water you go carry it out of the creek.”
Credit Jessica Lilly
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While pickup trucks hauling water was an unusual site in Charleston last year during the chemical spill, it’s common and a part of every day life for folks in the coalfields.
Self-Proclaimed “Mountain Folk”
Some folks use a cistern to store and collect water.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A cistern collects water carried from gutters off the house in McDowell County.
There are folks in the region proud of their independence.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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Terry Johnson lives on Burke Mountain in McDowell County where resident haul water to use in their homes.
Terry Johnson is a self proclaimed “mountain man” and gathers water for his community. He says he wouldn’t have it any other way. Some folks accepting of what they call the sacrifice of ‘mountain living’ while others really aren’t interested, or can’t afford a water bill.
“You have people that are third or fourth generation that they have to carry their water and a well with a lot of iron and they don’t know that there’s a better life,” Mike Goode said.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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Some folks are growing impatient on what they call “broken promises” for access to clean water.
While there are others that are growing impatient with what they call ’empty promises’ for access to public water. But mountain springs and abandoned mines can be good sources of water–some of the best water in the world, in fact. Marc Glass with Downstream Strategies says folks still should just be cautious.
“Your ground water needs to be protected the same way,” he said.
Several systems have been replaced but there is still more work to be done. For many folks in the coalfields today, a crumbling sometimes-abandoned coal industry water systems, mountain springs, streams, and store-bought bottled water are the options. And they can’t live without water.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A family stops to gather water for their home in McDowell County.
While the chemical spill in Charleston left more than 300,000 without usable water, it’s a problem that folks in the coalfields deal with on a regular basis.
Mountainous regions like southern West Virginia have an abundance of water, but the terrain along with aging infrastructure create challenges, just as it has for decades.
Many of the current water systems in place today in the coalfields were installed in the early 1900’s by coal companies. The coal operators, jobs, and most people left the area, leaving remnants behind of a once bustling economy. Remnants like some beautiful buildings, coal tipples …and water systems.
For some communities a boil water advisory is a way of life … like in Keystone in McDowell County where residents have been on advisory since 2010. Neighboring sister city of Northfork has been on a boil water advisory since 2013. The water systems are currently maintained and operated by individual towns, but the McDowell County Public Service District is planning projects to take on those responsibilities.
Elkhorn Water Project
Just this past year, a project with several phases started that is expected to bring relief to the region.
Phase I of the “Elkhorn Water Project” will bring a new water system to Elkhorn, Maybeurry and Switchback. Phase II will replace systems in Elkhorn, Keystone and Northfork and Phase III will upgrade systems in Landgraff, Tidewater, Divian, Kimball.
Credit Daniel Walker
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Elkhorn Water Project broke ground summer 2014.
Phase I broke ground this year and is expected to be complete in June. Executive Director of the McDowell County PSD Mavis Brewster says she’s happy with the progress. She says the second phase has not yet been funded. That’s where Betty Younger lives.
Betty Younger: Times have Changed
A coal miner’s daughter, Betty Younger grew up in McDowell County and remembers a very different community during the 1950’s. Younger sits on her front porch which sits close to route 5–a road busy with coal trucks. She reminisces about her days in the Kyle coal camp.
Like so many coal-dependent communities, McDowell has suffered the boom and bust of the industry, and the sharp population decline that comes with it. In the 1950’s there were more than 100-thousand people. Today less 20-thousand remain in the county.
“This part of McDowell County is… I mean there’s nothing here,” Younger said.
Younger has lived in her Elkhorn homes for about six years. There have been so many water issues… she just assumes not to drink it, rarely uses it for cooking, and doesn’t even count on regular access.
“You never know when you’re going to have water,” Younger said.
Phase II will also replace systems in Northfork and Keystone. Folks in Keystone have been on a boil water advisory since 2010, while Northfork has been under an advisory since 2013.
Credit Daniel Walker
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Elkhorn water tower believed to be at least 60 years old.
When all three phases are complete, the project will replace the system that Younger and other residents currently rely on. Phase I will replace a leaky, rusty, tank that is believed to date back to the 1940’s when it was set up by coal companies.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A water project in Wyoming County began last year when residents in Bud and Alpoca (including an elementary school) were caught in the middle of a tangled and complicated water system deal. After months under a boil water advisory, a project to bring residents dependable, clean water is now underway.
A municipal ordinance to limit heavy traffic through the downtown district of Morgantown has been declared “unenforceable” in Kanawha Circuit Court.
A citizen group Safe Streets Morgantown drew up the proposed ordinance and it was passed by Morgantown’s City Council. It was supposed to go into effect December 1st , limiting trucks weighing 13 tons or more, with several exceptions.
But a lawsuit delayed implementation. A couple of trucking companies that frequently travel through downtown Morgantown on route 7 which cuts through the business district, challenged the ordinance in court.
In the hearing, the city of Morgantown argued that state code allows the city to regulate traffic on certain types of connecting roads when safety is an issue, but Judge Joanne Tabit overturned the ordinance ruling that the ordinance wasn’t enforceable.
Safe Streets Morgantown released a statement expressing disappointment and encouraging the city council to consider an appeal.
In a unanimous vote last night, Morgantown City Council decided to delay implementation of an ordinance that would ban certain truck traffic in the city’s downtown district.
Morgantown’s heavy truck ban is supposed to go into effect December 1st (ninety days after it was passed in September). But in order to enforce the ordinance, signs need to be in place along state route 7 which cuts through town—signs that require approval from the state’s Department of Highways. The city submitted a proposal for signs several weeks ago, but the Division of Highways hasn’t responded.
The city council’s lead legal counsel, Bob Bastress, advised the group to delay enforcement until either:
They receive permission from DOH, and signs are in place.
They receive a favorable ruling from December 15th court hearing, and then get permission from DOH and signs in place.
DOH
The Division of Highways has been more or less silent on the issue since August when, in response to inquiries made by the City of Morgantown, the DOH said according to its interpretation, state code doesn’t allow for local management of roads within the state road system. “Therefore,” a DOH letter reads, “without the permission of the Commissioner [of Highways], any such municipal regulation would be invalid.”
“From their past statements, I don’t anticipate the DOH giving permission for the signage unless they’re told they have to by a court,” Batress said.
Court
A court hearing is already scheduled to settle the heart of the matter. A lawsuit was recently filed by two companies that would be directly affected by the ban, Shinston-based Nuzum Trucking Company and Kingwood-based Preston Contractors. The companies are seeking an injunction to stop the ban from going into effect. A motion was made for summary judgment on the state code in question, and that hearing will be held in Charleston, Bastress said, on December 15th.
Bastress, who also teaches about Constitutional Law at the West Virginia University Law School, reiterated during the meeting that it was his opinion that the council is well within its authority to regulate truck traffic in Morgantown.
Credit Safe Streets Morgantown
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Fact sheet compiled by Safe Streets Morgantown in light of recent lawsuit.
A group is working to create a transportation plan for Raleigh and Fayette Counties. The Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, is working to identify transportation investments needed to move the region forward.
The MPO office is federally and state funded but it’s made up of local governments, business leaders, and others. The group is responsible for long range transportation planning.
When the 2010 Census was published in 2012 is showed six towns across Route 19 in Fayette and Raleigh Counties had a population density of 50,000 or more. This makes the region “urbanized.” The municipalities included with this new designation include Fayetteville, Mt. Hope, Oak Hill, Sophia, Mabscott, and Beckley.
When an area is deemed ‘urbanized’ the federal government mandates the formation of an organization to come up with a transportation plan. As mandated by the federal government, the MPO is working to develop a 25‐year Regional Transportation Plan, which addresses travel by all modes, including streets and highways, bikeways and walkways, public transportation, aviation, rail and waterways.
Folks are encouraged to attend the second meeting to share ideas with leaders on what should be included in this plan. The is Tuesday, September 30 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Beckley City Hall Council Chambers in Beckley.
You can also share your ideas for the Fayette Raleigh County 25 year transportation plan online.
