Rain, heavy at times early, diminishing to a few showers this afternoon. High 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near a half an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible..
A West Virginia state board led by Gov. Jim Justice designed to help local governmental agencies ensure their drinking water is safe is under fire for awarding a $5 million grant to an out-of-state Catholic college from a fund typically tapped for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements.
The grant followed a proposal from the school, Steubenville, Ohio-based College of St. Joseph the Worker, to expand its operations into Weirton and push right-wing policies in West Virginia, using state funds.
The nonprofit college said in a grant proposal submitted to state officials that $2.15 million of the $5 million grant would support creating a real estate development and construction company to be headquartered in Weirton that employs its students. Another $1 million would support advocacy activities and a think tank that pushes right-wing policies, the college said, espousing support for anti-abortion and migrant apprehension measures the Justice administration has backed.
The state support for the college from the fund geared toward water and wastewater projects comes amid Weirton water quality and supply issues, with officials in the state’s seventh-largest city citing line breaks for a supply shortage and issuing a boil water notice last week.
“It’s extremely alarming for us to be spending that type of money which is to be designated for water and sewer on an education facility that’s not even located in our state,†Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., said in a phone interview Saturday. “That’s very alarming to me, how that could be done.â€
Millions more for non-water and wastewater projects
Records the Gazette-Mail obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests revealing official state communications with school leaders and project authorizations showed no evidence of written approval of the College of St. Joseph the Worker $5 million grant from the secretaries of the departments of Commerce, Economic Development or Tourism, as required by , the 2022 state law that created the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund.
HB 4566 created the fund with $250 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to support water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades as well as what the law calls “infrastructure projects to enhance economic development and/or tourism.â€
The majority of recipients have been towns, cities and public service districts getting support for water and wastewater improvement projects.
But the grant also has been tapped for other recipients, with millions of dollars awarded to private-sector recipients — even as the state has dealt with a surge in health-based and other drinking water violations.
Governor’s Office, Auditor’s Office and Water Development Authority officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Of the $67.4 million that Justice announced on Dec. 17 that the Water Development Authority had approved for the latest round of Economic Enhancement Grant Fund projects, $13.3 million — or 20% — went to recipients that aren’t towns, cities or public service districts, including:
$5 million: Glenville State University
$2.35 million: Oglebay Good Zoo
$1 million: Davis & Elkins College
$360,000: Hatfield-McCoy Trail
Of the 24 awardees that Justice announced, nine were not towns, cities or public service districts.
The Governor’s Office and Water Development Authority did not respond to requests for more information on those projects Monday.
During fiscal year 2023, tens of millions of dollars in state-approved Economic Enhancement Grant funding was disbursed for non-water-or-wastewater projects, including:
$4.38 million: Renovations at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington
The fund also supported a $3.5 million award disbursed in fiscal year 2023 to a Weirton-based recipient, per Water Development Authority records — but not for water or wastewater. Instead, the award went to the Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle for building renovations. Weirton water quality and access struggles Weirton has struggled with water quality and supply issues in recent weeks.
The city on Dec. 18 announced mandatory water conservation measures, citing a short-term supply shortage it attributed in a statement to “an inordinately high number of line breaks.†The city said it was requiring Weirton Area Water Board customers to eliminate nonessential uses including watering plants and washing automobiles.
On Friday, Weirton officials announced a city-wide boil water notice that City Manager Mike Adams said in a phone interview Monday was due to having to refill the water system after what he called a “pretty significant†line break. Adams said sharp temperature swings have been causing Weirton’s recent string of line breaks. “As with any city with older infrastructure, fluctuations in temperature are going to cause line breaks,†said Adams, who added that Weirton faces a likelihood of continued water line breaks in the wintertime until a planned city water treatment plant upgrade is completed.
That upgrade will be powered by $22.4 million of congressionally directed spending, Adams noted, adding the city has a “pretty good†relationship with the Water Development Authority, recalling support from the authority has included $1 million for the treatment plant upgrade.
W.Va.’s disproportionately big drinking water violation burden
Weirton, though, is just one of many municipalities throughout West Virginia that have grappled with growing water quality and access concerns — rooted in an escalating number of drinking water violations. Those violations have been piling up faster and more out of proportion with the rest of the country.
West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with health-based violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act in 2022 was 22.7%, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data, far exceeding the 4.5% national average. West Virginia’s clip of public water systems in this category had been just 4.7% in 2015. The percentage of public water systems in West Virginia identified as priority systems — systems on a list indicating unresolved serious or continuing violations for at least a quarter of the year — was 42.2% in 2022, dwarfing the national average of 3.2%.
Acute health-based violations, which have the potential to produce immediate illness, have been far more prevalent among West Virginia public water systems than the rest of the country on average. West Virginia’s percentage of public water systems with those violations was 2.7% in 2022, exceeding the national 0.8% clip and the state’s own 1.2% clip in 2015. West Virginia public water systems also struggle to meet public notice requirements.
Of the state’s public water systems, 63.3% had public notification and “other†violations in 2022, compared with just 9.8% nationwide. Public notification requirements mandate systems to alert consumers if there is a serious problem with their drinking water or if there have been other violations of system requirements.
The EPA defines “other†violations as failing to meet other Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, like not issuing annual Consumer Confidence Reports — annual water quality reports that West Virginia’s most common type of public water systems must provide to customers. West Virginia’s percentages of systems with violations in these categories has been rising even as the same clips have been steady nationwide.
Annie Moore, deputy communications director of West Virginia’s new Departments of Health and Health Facilities, has said many significant deficiencies cited during inspections are not an immediate health risk, although they could cause concern if not corrected.
Very few systems use an EPA-provided voluntary electronic reporting software portal the state implemented years ago, Moore said. Many systems still rely on fax to submit their required data, which likely contributes to reporting issues, Moore added.
Southern coalfield counties not high on state priorities list
West Virginia’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund aims to address water quality problems through building, upgrading and expanding wastewater facilities.
In June 2024, the state submitted an for the state Department of Environmental Protection-administered fund for state fiscal year 2025 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Projects requesting fund assistance are prioritized using a ranking system, with three categories — public health, regulatory compliance and affordability — used to determine project scoring.
The highest-ranked projects on the priority list are contacted regarding their project status to determine if funding support is appropriate and the project is ready to proceed, according to the plan.
A Gazette-Mail review of the list found that despite rampant water concerns and disproportionately low income levels, McDowell and Wyoming counties have no projects among the list’s top nine entries. None of those entries are from Southern West Virginia, where mining has been especially prevalent and has impacted water quality.
Instead, the top entries are located in the north central or eastern parts of the state. From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice, a coalfield social justice initiative of the West Virginia Faith Collective, has called on Gov. Jim Justice to declare — and state lawmakers to push for — a state of emergency to ensure clean water access in McDowell County, where discolored water has plagued the community.
“Wyoming and McDowell Counties are experiencing a public health crisis that has lasted for decades,†From Below said in a Facebook post sharing the Gazette-Mail’s Saturday story on the state’s $5 million grant through the Water Development Authority for the College of St. Joseph the Worker.
From Below reported water distributions totaling thousands of gallons to over 280 McDowell County homes throughout 2024.
DEP spokesman Terry Fletcher has said geographic location doesn’t influence selection of projects for Clean Water State Revolving Fund support. Projects are funded on a first-come, first-served basis, according to readiness to proceed, Fletcher said.
Fletcher added it’s not uncommon for applicants to withdraw from the program or decline funding if the community is unable or unwilling to bear associated sewage and water treatment costs.
That means more waiting throughout West Virginia.
In Weirton, the waiting is on the city’s boil water order to end. Adams couldn’t give an estimated time frame for that. “We’re working on water and water treatment,†Adams said. “Sometimes it’s a slow process.â€
