The State Personnel Board approved the transfer of about a dozen positions between agencies, an offshoot of the ongoing restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The positions are part of the administration of the West Virginia Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund, which provides financial assistance to public water systems. The program provides financial support for eligible infrastructure improvements needed to comply with the requirements of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act and to protect public health.
The positions will transfer from the Department of Human Resources, Bureau for Public Health.
They will go to the Department of Environmental Protection.
This is happening because of the passage of Senate Bill 561,which authorized the office’s transfer. The bill becomes effective on July 1.
“This bill simply moves administration of the drinking water treatment revolving fund from DHHR to DEP,” Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said in explaining the bill on the day it passed that chamber.
The change was an aspect of a bigger division of the DHHR, which was split in a separate bill into three agencies.
With this situation, DHHR and the Department of Environmental Protection agreed in a memorandum of understanding to transfer the positions and maintain the water treatment revolving fund.
There are a total of eleven positions to be transferred. Out of the eleven positions, five are filled and six are vacant.