FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Governor Patrick Morrisey was in Fairmont Thursday to announce that $4.96 million has been awarded to water projects across West Virginia.
The West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council (IJDC) has awarded $3.4 million in funds for four projects, and another $1.56 grant is coming from the state DEP Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
The projects approved are listed below:
- $1,000,000 IJDC grant to replace an 8-inch river crossing line for the town of Cairo in Ritchie County and perform other system improvements affecting 157 customers.
- $1,000,000 IJDC grant and a low-interest loan of $9,209,240 to the Kanawha County RDA to extend water service in the Olcott area.
- $500,000 IJDC grant to the Elk Valley PSD in Kanawha County to modify chlorine contact tanks in order to accommodate alternative means of disinfection in the town’s sewer system.
- $500,000 IJDC grant to the Greater Paw Paw Public Service District to repair seven different main pump stations in the sewer system. This project mainly focuses on Baxter in Marion County.
- $400,000 IJDC grant to the town of Marmet to address a stream embankment failure at the city’s wastewater plant.
- $1.34 million from the WVDEP’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to the town of Anmore to replace failing lines, upgrade water meters to modern radio-read units, and install two dozen new fire hydrants.
Morrisey says all of these projects are high in importance.
“I think they’re critically important for a lot of different reasons. For one, in order to live, we have an expectation we’re going to have clean, safe water. That’s a starting point,” Morrisey said during his Thursday press conference in Fairmont.
“We talk a lot about economic development. How do you have effective economic development if you don’t have good sight selection, if you don’t have good water, and if you don’t have good sewer? These are things that I think deserve to be prioritized,” he continued.
Morrisey says that with the state and federal resources available, he expects to see West Virginia take more steps in ensuring residents have good water at their disposal.
“I’m feeling good that we’re at a point where we’re going to continue to make good announcements and continue to help a lot of the communities who are in need of water and sewer,” Morrisey said.