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PSC staff recommended a state- funded and statewide hydrant replacement program for nonprofit water utilities, predicting smaller utilities couldn’t afford hydrant replacement costs without significant rate hikes. Staff suggested $70 million to support the program.

The Legislature is moving in a different direction.

The House of Delegates Technology and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday advanced a bill that would update standards public water utilities must follow for hydrant testing and maintenance — and hold that codifying the standards is not a cause for which utilities may seek rate recovery.

The provision barring utilities from increasing rates to meet the standards would update was pushed by committee Chair Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, over the objection of PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane.

Lane told Linville’s committee prior to its advancement of HB 5617 Tuesday she didn’t know how small public service districts could absorb costs of complying with standards that would be set by HB 5617 given its ban on increasing rates to meet them.

“To the extent that utilities are not now inspecting or doing flow testing [of hydrants], they will have to do that, and that will cost money. And that will be passed on to the ratepayers,� Lane said.

But Linville was sharply critical of that stance, saying the bill’s provision prohibiting utilities from seeking rate recovery was necessary to keep ratepayers from being saddled with costs related to hydrant maintenance responsibilities they already have carried.

“If you vote against this proviso, make no mistake about it, you will be going home to your people and saying, the last 100 years, those fire hydrants totally didn’t have to work, we passed a bill to raise your rates, and we accepted the argument that they didn’t have to work in the past,� Linville said.

The panel voted 11-6 against an amendment proposed by Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, and Speaker Pro Tempore Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, that would have removed the provision banning HB 5617-caused rate recovery, which was not in the introduced version of the bill.

Lane said unidentified opposition to PSC staff’s hydrant replacement grant program proposal caused the PSC to take its pro-rate recovery stance. The PSC did not respond to a request to identify that opposition after the meeting.

HB 5617 would allow the PSC to issue rules on inspection and testing of hydrants per National Fire Protection Association and American Water Works Association standards. PSC staff had recommended amending state code governing water utilities to address hydrant inspection and testing, finding that state rules and regulations don’t require annual inspection or periodic flow testing in accordance with national standards.

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, denied a committee request to discard a second reference to the House Judiciary Committee.

PSC staff probe found troubling oversight gaps

The PSC staff’s fire hydrant investigation followed ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä firefighters reporting insufficient flow at three West Virginia American Water hydrants on the West Side during a May house fire that left a dog dead.

Based on responses from 256 water utilities, PSC staff found only two-thirds of hydrants are inspected every year and stressed that all hydrants should be inspected annually. PSC staff reported 11% of hydrants statewide are older than 50 years, the age at which staff determined hydrants should be replaced.

Just 68% of utilities regularly flow test hydrants, something staff said should be performed on all hydrants.

Only 42% of utilities indicated they have a written procedure for hydrant maintenance, which includes inspection, according to PSC staff, which noted that “anything less than 100% is not acceptable.�