Infrastructure Story Archives - Page 3 of 21 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Water Lines For Preston County Aim To Improve Access, Fire Response

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allocated $646,000 to Preston County for facility improvements and more than 5,000 feet of water line expansions.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allocated $646,000 to water infrastructure improvements in Preston County.

The new EPA funding for Preston County Public Service District #1 — based in Arthurdale — will go toward facility improvements at a local water plant, and help construct more than 5,000 feet of new water lines.

The water line expansion seeks to bolster water access across the county.

Plus, it aims to ensure that pressurized water is readily available for combating wildfires. Preston County was one of several areas in the eastern region of the state affected by a series of March wildfires.

In a press release Tuesday, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito voiced her support for improvements to the region’s water infrastructure.

“Projects like this will improve the existing infrastructure and provide the community with more reliable water service,” she said. “I look forward to seeing it completed.”

ARC Grants $32 Million More For W.Va. Broadband

The Appalachian Regional Commission granted the West Virginia Department of Economic Development more than $32 million for broadband service improvements across the state.

Updated on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 10:38 a.m.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development organization that operates across Appalachia, has granted the West Virginia Department of Economic Development $32,235,629 for broadband service improvements across the Mountain State.

Broadband refers to continuously running, high-speed internet, which can be harder to access in remote areas that lack infrastructure like fiber-optic cables or transmission towers.

West Virginia lags behind most other states in terms of broadband access. More than 300,000 households across the state are underserved by broadband coverage, and the state ranks second-worst in coverage nationally.

Recent pushes to expand broadband coverage nationally have brought increased attention and investment to West Virginia.

Beginning in 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) developed plans to grant the state more than $1.21 billion for high-speed internet services. That funding received final approval in April, and officials with the Department of Economic Development claimed it would bring broadband internet to every household in the state.

While granted from a different source, the new round of funding — like the NTIA grant before it — is made possible through the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which aims to bolster broadband infrastructure and services across the country.

The new BEAD funds will be administered by the Department of Economic Development, which oversees the state’s Office of Broadband.

In a Wednesday statement, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said the additional round of federal funding was crucial to ensuring “more West Virginians have access to dependable high-speed internet.”

Additionally, Manchin said expanding broadband services played an important role in growing the state’s economy.

Manchin advocated for the added funds to “help equip every family and business in the Mountain State with the tools they need to thrive in the modern digital economy,” he said.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said expanding broadband access has been a top priority for her in working through legislation. “Today, we are continuing to see the benefits of that in our state,” she said.

**Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a statement from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

Millions Announced For School Building Improvements

Millions of dollars will be invested into improving the state’s school buildings.

The West Virginia School Building Authority approved a combination of multi-county and major improvement awards totaling more than $26 million at its meeting Wednesday.

The money will go to 26 renovation and improvement projects including additions, roof replacements and utility improvements.

More than a third of the awards will go to five career and technical centers that serve multiple counties.

Gov. Jim Justice, who serves as the authority’s chairman, said “an investment in our schools is an investment in our children.”

“We’ve made huge strides in improving our infrastructure, but we aren’t going to stop here,” he said. “Our work isn’t done. We will keep doing more to provide the best education possible for our kids because they deserve it. Let’s keep it going.”
The legislature appropriated $150 million for the School Building Authority in the state budget for the coming fiscal year in order to avoid a federal claw back of COVID-era funding.

Capito Open To Renewal Of Water Bill Subsidy Program

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said Thursday she is open to extending a water bill subsidy program, following requests from the Public Service Commission of West Virginia.

Since it was established four years ago, the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) has helped more than 17,000 low-income households access water services across West Virginia.

But without renewed federal funding, the program is soon set to expire.

In February, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program Establishment Act, which would make the program permanent.

Now, West Virginia officials like Charlotte Lane, chair of the Public Service Commission (PSC), are urging the state’s lawmakers to back Padilla’s bill and support the creation of a permanent version of the program.

On Wednesday, Lane wrote a letter to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., asking her to help renew funding for LIHWAP.

“Water is our most important resource. Our local communities rely on water systems to provide safe drinking water,” she wrote. “We believe it is imperative that Congress take action to… ensure that low-income households do not lose access to this critical assistance.”

Without a program like LIHWAP in place, Lane said access to water and wastewater services would become more insecure for many West Virginians.

“If the LIHWAP program lapses, there is no question that many will suffer,” she wrote. “LIHWAP has proven to be a successful program in getting assistance to those who need it the most.”

During a press briefing Thursday, Capito indicated that she would consider renewing LIHWAP’s funding.

But she stopped short of endorsing a permanent version of the program, and said lawmakers were considering adjustments to how LIHWAP operates.

“We’re looking at extending it. I think we have to look at some reforms, maybe, to the program,” she said. “But we will be looking at the letter that the PSC sent us, and [seeing] how it most directly impacts our West Virginians.”

After a brief extension period, February marked the last month for LIHWAP to accept new applicants. Without renewed funding, this will be the final year for LIHWAP to distribute its one-time subsidies to households nationwide.

A similar program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, is permanent. States are granted a pool of money annually, and distribute it to low-income households to support their heating and cooling needs.

$1.2 Billion Grant To Expand Broadband Coverage To All W.Va. Homes

The U.S. Department of Commerce has granted West Virginia $1.2 billion for affordable broadband services. More than 300,000 West Virginia households were underserved by broadband in 2023.

Spotty internet access has long proven an issue for the mountainsides of West Virginia.

In 2023, more than 300,000 households across the state were unserved or underserved by broadband coverage. This month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that coverage in the Mountain State ranks second-worst nationally, besting only Alaska.

But a new federal grant aims to address current gaps in coverage, ensuring that every household can receive broadband internet services.

On Thursday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted West Virginia more than $1.21 billion for high-speed internet services based on a plan first announced in 2023.

The funding comes from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program — part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into effect in 2021.

These funds will go toward the creation of new broadband internet infrastructure in regions with low internet download and upload speeds.

West Virginia residents can anticipate improvements to their internet services between one-and-a-half and five years after funds are distributed, according to Evan Feinman, BEAD program director.

Specific timelines vary from region to region based on “proximity to existing infrastructure,” he said during a virtual press briefing Thursday.

State grants were determined based on current broadband coverage needs, and were finalized through a collaboration between state and federal officials, Feinman said.

This meant coordinating with the West Virginia Department of Economic Development’s Office of Broadband.

After an initial figure for the state’s grant was set by NTIA in 2023, state officials had to develop specific plans for how grant dollars would be spent, according to Kelly Collins Workman, the office’s director.

This included crafting a five-year plan for how improvements would be implemented, plus strategies for promoting digital equity across the state, she said.

When the “historic opportunity” to participate in the BEAD program came along, Collins Workman said her office “poured our heart and soul” into the application process “to secure $1.2 billion for our state.”

“We jumped in with both feet,” she said. “We worked as hard as we could, as fast as we could.”

Mitch Carmichael, cabinet secretary for the department, said the collaboration was crucial to expanding economic resources for West Virginians.

“When we connect people in every corner of our state — and every hill and every valley and every region — the world becomes a better place,” he said.

Carmichael emphasized that changes provided by the program would be sweeping. “This program will reach every address. Every single address,” he said.

The BEAD grant comes during a particularly tenuous moment for affordable internet services nationally, as funding for a federal internet subsidy program used widely in West Virginia is set to lapse this month.

Since 2021, the FCC has provided broadband internet subsidies to low-income households nationwide through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

More than 127,000 West Virginia households rely on the program for support. But a renewal of the program’s funding has failed to receive bipartisan support in Congress, despite pushes from Democratic lawmakers.

Feinman said ACP’s goals differ from those of the BEAD program. Where ACP provides households financial support to afford internet services, BEAD creates infrastructure so that it is possible to access the internet in the first place.

Still, Feinman said the two programs have overlapping missions, and that NTIA officials were “disappointed” by the program’s imminent expiration.

“A kid who grows up in a house with a reliable internet connection has a higher GPA, [and is] more likely to go to postsecondary education,” he said. “Elderly folks can age in place safely. There’s such tremendous benefits to having folks get online.”

Feinman said that the existence of subsidy programs like ACP gave way to the development of new broadband infrastructure programs like BEAD.

With more residents able to afford internet services, companies were encouraged to spread their infrastructure projects nationally, he said. This includes the rural and low-income communities targeted by programs like BEAD.

“The program going away is going to make it more expensive to build these networks,” Feinman said. “That said, we are still going to be able to get them to every single West Virginia home and business.”

While ACP’s renewal struggled to receive bipartisan support on the Senate floor, state officials’ praise for the BEAD program stretched across the aisle.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said that the BEAD program has provided important resources to residents across West Virginia. In a Thursday statement, he renewed his commitment to ensuring the state can “deliver broadband service to every West Virginia family and business.”

Likewise, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said in a Thursday statement that the new grant would “better connect homes, businesses and classrooms across the state.”

“While there is still a long road ahead to getting more West Virginians connected, we are well on our way,” she said.

W.Va. Analysts Develop New Tech To Visualize Flood Risks

West Virginia geospatial officials are developing new technology to help visualize flood and landslide risk in the state. The project aims to create more accessible and updated community-level flood risk data.

April storms have caused flooding across West Virginia, from the Northern Panhandle to the state capital.

Flooding events like these are familiar territory for many residents. According to the West Virginia GIS Technical Center, 286 communities across the state are located directly on flood plains — areas adjacent to waterways that can become inundated by rising water levels.

The center has long worked to identify flood risks through digital mapping software. On Sunday, state analysts presented new developments in this effort to the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding.

Currently, the center is working to strengthen local flood risk data and to create data visualization tools more easily understood by members of the public, according to Co-Director Aaron Maxwell.

Often, emergency management data comes from the federal level, which limits the level of detail available on the local level.

The center is working to update structural and flood plain data across the state to “support the public and flood plain managers in flood-prone communities,” and to develop a “higher grain of detail than what’s available with federal tools,” Maxwell said.

Last year, the center began developing the West Virginia Flood Resiliency Framework through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This has allowed the center to develop mapping and modeling tools on flood risk and resiliency across the state, Maxwell said.

Beyond modeling how waterways and properties would be affected by rising water levels, Maxwell said the center is also conducting a statewide survey to assess how residents feel about flood risks and recovery efforts in their community.

The center will then flesh out additional reports on flood risk preparedness locally, Maxwell said.

By providing resources like new data visualization software and survey reports to the public, Maxwell said the center hopes to bolster “data-driven decision-making in the state,” like corroborating emergency relief grant requests with concrete data.

Maxwell also said that the center has been working with West Virginia’s State Resiliency Office to compile these resources into a “one-stop shop for people to go to, to investigate their flood risk.”

This furthers the center’s goals of providing more accessible data for the public. Pulling it all together in one location is easier for every-day residents, like how 3D visualization tools are more easily understood than convoluted or industry-specific information, Maxwell said.

Aaron Maxwell, co-director of the West Virginia GIS Technical Center, speaks to members of the West Virginia Legislature Sunday.

*Photo Credit: Perry Bennett/WV Legislative Photography*

The center is also working to develop tools that can assess risks associated with flooding, like landslides.

Kurt Donaldson, geographic information system (GIS) manager at the center, said that landslides are the second most costly form of natural disaster to West Virginia, second only to flooding.

“Just where West Virginia is, with the steep slopes, landslides are always an issue,” he said during the committee meeting Sunday. “Sometimes they get categorized as flood-damaged structures when it was associated with a mudslide.”

Donaldson said that the center is developing a state landslide susceptibility grid.

Like the flood risk visualization maps, these aim to convey to local officials and members of the public emergency risks present in their communities. “It can be useful for identifying areas that are susceptible to landslides,” he said.

While the center will continue to work on the project in the coming months, Maxwell said their NSF funding ends in October, requiring sustainable, long-term funding resources to keep data up to date.

Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer, said that flood risk management is often overlooked in financial discussions within the Legislature, which he views as an oversight.

“Flooding has been, in budget terms at least, virtually ignored for 100 years,” he said during Sunday’s meeting. “We’ve got the other highways, water, sewer, broadband, et cetera infrastructure, but flooding is not on our agenda as a major infrastructure need for West Virginia.”

Swope said that he and members of the Legislature should prioritize flood risk mitigation funding in upcoming financial discussions.

“As money becomes available after other infrastructure needs are met, I think we should give serious consideration to doing what we can for flood mitigation, and we’ll choose the highest priority places first,” he said.

Swope also said that preventing damages associated with natural disasters like floods would ultimately limit state spending on emergency response efforts.

“It’s not an expense that wouldn’t pay for itself with the proper application,” he said. “If this information had been available 100 years ago, there might be a lot of towns and cities that have a lot less damages due to floods.”

To participate in the West Virginia GIS Technical Center’s flood resiliency survey, visit the center’s West Virginia Flood Resilience Framework website.

For more information on local flood risk in West Virginia, visit the West Virginia GIS Technical Center’s West Virginia Flood Tool.