Source Water Protection Plans Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

DHHR Continues Source Water Protection Plan Hearings

Since July 1, the state Bureau for Public Health has been holding public hearings across West Virginia to discuss proposed Source Water Protection Plans.

The plans are the result of legislation approved after a 2014 chemical spill in Charleston left hundreds of thousands of people without usable drinking water for days.

Monday evening was the second time citizens in the Kanawha Valley—those who were directly impacted by the spill—were able to comment on their local plan.

The public hearing in South Charleston focused on West Virginia American Water’s proposal submitted this summer. The company is one of 125 utilities required to submit the proposals, and Scott Rodeheaver, Assistant Manager for the Source Water Protection Program at DHHR, says public hearings are being held to discuss each one.

“It varies from place to place what the exact issues are,” Rodeheaver said, “but I think the people that come are concerned about the long term quality of the water supply in their area.”

Only six people attended Monday’s hearing, including Phil Price. He’s a semi-retired analytical chemist who works with the Charleston-based group Advocates for a Safe Water System. Price claims West Virginia American Water’s plans are not adequate.

“Many, many, many, many of the hazards upstream from our intake are excluded from the plan,” Price explained. He points to Yeager Airport as one of those hazards. But Laura Martin, the company’s External Affairs Manager, says her utility is prepared.

“What is outlined in state law is a zone of critical concern and then a zone of peripheral concern, and if we feel that there are entities or aboveground storage tanks or other facilities located outside of those, we have included them in our plan,” Martin said.

The plans need final approval from the DHHR before taking effect.

Two Years After Chemical Spill, Water Utilities Submit Protection Plans

Source water protection plans are mandates water utilities are required to follow to keep drinking water safe. However, before 2014, following these plans in West Virginia was voluntary. Since the January 2014 Elk River chemical spill, though, legislation was put in place requiring about 125 water systems in the state to have these plans. The law also made what was already on the books much stronger.

Friday, July 1 is the deadline for water and sewer utilities to submit their new plans to the state Bureau for Public Health. Liz McCormick has been following this story and brings us a look into how two utilities – large and small – have been dealing with the new regulatory landscape.

Source water protection plans in West Virginia aren’t anything new, water utilities across the state have been asked to have them for years. But after a coal cleaning chemical leaked into the Kanawha Valley water supply in 2014 leaving, 300,000 people without drinking water, state lawmakers decided to make a change. Senator John Unger headed up that process.

“And then when the chemical spill happened, and the water became a top issue again. Then this was a time that we needed to address protecting our water resources here from chemical contaminations,” Unger said.

The 2014 bill did two things – it changed the way aboveground storage tanks are regulated, and it required 125 water systems in West Virginia to create and implement source water protection plans.

The Harpers Ferry Water Works. It’s a small utility that serves drinking water to about 800 customers in Harpers Ferry, Bolivar, and the National Park Service. The utility doesn’t provide sewer service.

“This facility was built in 1985, so it’s pretty old, but it’s worked pretty well,” said Josh Carter, the Water System Manager for the Harpers Ferry Water Works, “It’s a small operation, but it actually serves a whole lot of people.”

In fact, it’s the smallest water utility in Jefferson County falling under the new source water protection plan requirements. Those plans contain six things: a management plan, a contingency plan, engineering details, an inventory of potential sources of significant contamination, a communication plan, and an early warning monitoring system.

For larger water utilities – like the Morgantown Utility Board which serves 25,000 customers – those requirements were easy to meet.

“You know the honest answer is, it’s as tough as the utility chooses to make it,” explained Tim Ball, MUB’s general manager, “We made it tough on ourselves. We imposed a high standard. We tried to include multiple scenarios, and we’ve committed to a level of preparedness that I’m pretty confident that most of the state has not committed to.”

MUB was the first water utility in the state to provide its new source water protection plan to the public for comment. But Ball’s feelings weren’t shared by every water system.

As lawmakers crafted those requirements in 2014, many small utilities cried out for help, saying the plans would be too expensive to draft and implement. So, the state is providing about two and a half million dollars for these smaller systems.

“The funding has been provided through a series of grants during 2015 and 2016 to assist in the development of various sections of the source water protection plans for about 116 of the 125 public water utilities,” said Rahul Gupta, the Commissioner for the state Bureau for Public Health.

Harpers Ferry Water Works was one of those 116 water utilities in the state that qualified for the aid. Still, Barbara Humes, Harpers Ferry’s water commissioner, says her town already had a source water protection plan in place dating back to 2011. She says updating for the 2014 requirements wasn’t as difficult as it could have been.

“It didn’t really scare us at all, it didn’t… All we had to do was dig through our data and develop a team,” Humes said.

Harper’s Ferry, the Morgantown Utility Board and 123 other water utilities are required to turn in their source water protection plans Friday. From there, the state Bureau for Public Health will review the plans and give them a final approval. But Rahul Gutpa says these documents won’t just be put away.

“It’s important to highlight that this is not a stale document that gets put on the shelf,” he noted, “It’s a dynamic, living and breathing document.”

Utilities will be required to renew their source water protection plans in three years.

Communities Encouraged to Learn about Source Water Protection Plans

After a chemical spill in the Kanawha Valley left more than 300,000 people with contaminated drinking water for days, state lawmakers passed legislation in an effort to prevent a similar crisis. One part of that legislation requires most water utilities in the state to draft source water protection plans – with public input. West Virginia Public Broadcasting attended a public forum in Shepherdstown Thursday night aimed at educating the community about the plans.

In the grand ballroom at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown Thursday evening, dozens of community members were playing “water” jeopardy. They were learning about West Virginia source water protection plans.

These plans have to be drafted by most water utilities by July 1, 2016. The plans require six things: a management plan, a contingency plan, engineering details, an inventory of potential sources of significant contamination, a communication plan, and an early warning monitoring system.

It’s a lot to take in, but anyone can access the information about the requirements online.

And a big part of these plans is getting input from the public.

Angie Rosser is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. She’s been hosting forums like this one across the state to help educate West Virginia communities about the source water protection plans and what they can do to help mold them.

Shepherdstown was the fifth of six stops.

“As community members, we have a stake in the decisions made around water that we are part of the solution,” Rosser explained, “I mean, I’m interested in this being very solution oriented. Yeah, we have to face what are the scary things that could harm our water, but really the planning, the source water protection plan is, okay we know about it, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to minimize the threat of contamination?”

The management area in the plans is one of the six areas where residents can help the most. Community members can do things like correctly dispose of old cleaning chemicals instead of pouring them down the drain. They can dispose of old medications on special days rather than flushing them down the toilet. Community members are also encouraged to report any spills or accidental discharge to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

Abigail Benjamin has six kids, ranging in age from 1 to 13, and she’s a resident of Martinsburg. She says the forum showed her ways she and her family can conserve water.

“I’m inspired to really make those changes, and I’m really inspired to talk to my neighbors, because I think we’re a small group here, but there are a lot of people who are interested in this issue,” she said.

Angie Rosser, of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, says there are still lots of steps for communities in the state to take, but she says we’re headed down the right path.

“The Legislature in 2014 were very serious, and the 300,000 people who lost their water were very serious that something needed to change; a fundamental shift,” Rosser noted. “And as the water crisis fades in distant memory, I mean, the question will be is that fundamental shift, has it happened? Are we better off? I answer that question, yes, we know more, we’re aware more, you know, I have to be hopeful.”

Also on Thursday night, the Morgantown Utility Board presented its draft source water protection plan. It’s the first utility in the state to present its plan, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources, which hosted the public meeting and comment session.

Water utilities will hold such meetings around the state in the next few weeks as they work to meet the July 1st deadline to file their own plans.