CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia American Water Company has collected household claims from about 500 customers on Charleston’s West Side who were impacted by the Nov. 10 water main break and Mountaineer Gas outage.
“We are seeing about an average $1,500 pay out in those claims to those customers,” WVAWC spokesperson Megan Hannah told MetroNews Thursday.
The water company started collecting claims two weeks ago and said they’re willing to reimburse up to $2,000 per household in connection with water main break that led to more than 1,100 natural gas outages on the West Side. The break filled over 40 miles worth of gas lines with water.
Hannah said claims cover loss of gas heat for 14 days or longer, loss of hot water and damaged kitchen appliances.
“We are covering annoyance and inconvenience for the gas outage as well as additional compensation for those out-of-pocket expenses that may have occurred during the period of that outage,” she said.
Claims are being accepted “indefinitely” through the WVAWC call center at 1-800-243-2490. Affected customers should be prepared to provide identification, receipts for out-of-pocket expenses and a copy of their Mountaineer Gas bill or proof of residency. Calls will be taken from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Mountaineer Gas has promised to foot the bill to replace damage appliances and issued a $75 credit for customers on their next monthly bill.
The gas company sued WVAWC earlier this month over the water main break.
“We firmly believe the interruption of gas service to our customers is a direct result of the failure of the West Virginia American Water Company facilities, and we feel West Virginia American Water
should be responsible for the significant costs incurred by Mountaineer,” Mountaineer Gas Senior Vice President Moses Skaff said in a statement on Dec. 5.
The state Public Service Commission has been conducting an investigation into the outage. Hannah said they are fully cooperating with the PSC.
“We do hope that the Public Service Commission will continue to look at the treatment between West Virginia American Water and Mountaineer Gas to ensure that this is a fair and equitable investigation into both utilities so that we can all do what’s best for our customers to ensure that an event like this does not happen again,” she said.
For additional information about filing household claims, WVAWC are encouraged to visit https://www.amwater.com/wvaw/outageclaims.