Huntington’s sanitary board has announced plans to upgrade a nearly century-old sewer system that is both at capacity and under threat of a federal takeover for repeated water quality violations.
The Sanitary Board approved the proposed infrastructure upgrades at its regularly scheduled meeting on Nov. 10. City Council’s Finance Committee voted unanimously on Nov. 14 to forward the project to the full council, which was scheduled to proceed with a first reading today. Council’s final approval is expected in mid-December.
The $200 million project will also separate the lines at 3rd and 5th Avenues to reduce flooding risk and improve public safety along the primary corridors that connect the east end of the city to the west end.
Federal and state grants and loans, including through the American Rescue Plan Act, will pay for most of the planned improvements. A stepped increase in user rates will be phased in over several years to cover the repayment of the loans for the upgraded system.
The stepped fee increase, which eventually will add $27.20 a month to customers’ minimum bill, will allow the city to access critical grant and low-interest loan financing while providing customers with time to adjust to the increased infrastructure costs
“Inaction is not an option,” Mayor Steve Williams stated in a news release. “We’ve put this off for too long, kicking the can down the road rather than dealing with our decaying sewer and storm water systems.
“This once-in-a-generation opportunity to access $40 million in grants and $160 million in low-interest loans will make certain that Huntington can chart its own future, allowing the city and region to grow while keeping our children and families healthy and ensuring that critical public infrastructure can serve us for another 50 years.”
The existing wastewater treatment plant is currently operating at 98 percent capacity and hasn’t seen a major capital improvement since the 1980s. That could limit the city’s ability to connect any new industry, homes, schools, churches or other public and private facilities to the sewer system.
“Huntington’s flooding woes are well-documented,” stated Brian Bracey, executive director of the Huntington Water Quality Board. “It only takes an hourly rainfall of one inch to flood our city streets – and the combined overflow of both storm and sewage water poses significant safety hazards, from submerged vehicles to potentially life-threatening delays in emergency vehicle response times.”
From 2015-2021, state regulators cited 143 violations of the city’s water pollution control permit for excessive discharge from the wastewater treatment plant. These discharges are a direct result of the plant operating at or near full capacity.
During the same timeframe, the system incurred additional penalties for dry weather discharges, primarily caused by failed pumps and line blockages. Raw sewage is discharged onto the ground or into streams upon each such event.
Upon each discharge, the city was cited for failure to appropriately maintain a Combined Sewer System Overflow as required by the city’s Long Term Control Plan. If Huntington were in compliance with the LTCP, the allowable number of discharges would be 42 over the seven-year period; the actual number of discharges was 489.
These violations have led to fines from both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and, as recently as December 2021, more than $325,000 from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. The fines are the direct result of an antiquated system and deteriorating infrastructure.
Those repeated violations put Huntington at risk of a possible federal takeover by the U.S. Department of Justice, as was the case a decade ago in Akron, Ohio.
“Our choice is clear,” said Jim Rorrer, HWQB vice chairman. “Continue with the status quo, and the escalating threats to public health, safety and local self-governance — or rally together as a community and make a critical investment in Huntington’s future — on our own terms.”