A new documentary is showing how the nation’s water supplies are at risk from a crumbling water and sewer infrastructure.
West Virginia’s topography and rural nature pose special problems for providing water and sewer service to families.
President-elect Barack Obama is promising to spend billions of federal dollars on the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
That money can’t soon enough for our country’s water and sewer systems, according to a group of panelists West Virginia Public Broadcasting brought together to discuss the challenges facing water and sewer systems.
Money tops the list of problems. There’s not enough federal and state government money to repair and replace our crumbling water and sewer lines.
And the price we pay for water isn’t enough to fix the problem either, according to our panelists. Matt Stanley is president and CEO of Beckley Water Company, one of the last family-owned utilities in the country.
"There’s a disconnect between what customers are willing to pay and the actual cost of providing water service," Stanley said.
"When they’re paying less than a penny per gallon, compared to $10 to $30 a gallon for bottled water, there’s a definite disconnect," he said.
Part of the reason is political, according to John Stump, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson which represents public service districts and municipalities in West Virginia.
"If you’re a city council member, or you’re a member of the public service district board, you’re not particularly interested in raising rates on your neighbors," Stump said. "That’s never a popular thing to do."
Another problem is lack of service. About one-quarter of West Virginia households don’t have public water.
Because we’re spread out, and because of our topography, it’s tough and expensive to extend service to customers in rural areas.
West Virginia-American Water president Wayne Morgan explained how his company has partnered with government to extend water to almost everyone in certain counties, such as Boone, Cabell, Putnam and Kanawha.
"We serve 98 percent of the county in Kanawha County and it was probably 25 percent unserved 15 years ago," he said.
"We’ll come up with money, the county commission will come up with money, the governor will come up with money, working together in a partnership," Morgan said.
But that doesn’t come cheap. West Virginia-American is asking for a 12 percent rate increase, in part to replace water lines.
Earlier this month, the Public Service Commission staff and the consumer advocate came out against the proposed increase, and instead recommended a slight rate decrease.
As bad as the problems with water are, the sewers are worse. Only about half of West Virginians have sewer service.
And many of the state’s bigger towns and cities have a combined sewer and wastewater treatment system. That means when it rains hard, raw sewage flows into rivers and streams.
The federal government now says sewer and wastewater lines must be separated. Chris Jarrett used to be head of West Virginia-American Water. Now, he’s executive director of the West Virginia Water Development Authority.
"The federal government basically changed the rules on everybody," he said. "I think to really fix the problem, you’re going to need a huge injection of federal dollars as well as state dollars."
President-elect Obama is promising billions for infrastructure, after years of federal neglect, says Mike Johnson, assistant director of the Division of Water and Waste Management for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
"I think there is hope that in future years, the annual allocations that we will get to build wastewater systems in West Virginia will increase," Johnson said. He added it would take about $1.8 billion to provide West Virginia communities with adequate wastewater treatment.
One way or another, through rate increases, government subsidies or most likely both, our panelists agreed: we can’t afford to take our water and sewer infrastructure for granted any longer.
The documentary "Liquid Assets" is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. on Dec. 15 on West Virginia PBS, followed at 10:30 p.m. by our special roundtable discussion on West Virginia’s water and sewer needs.