WAYNE, W.Va. — Wayne County Sheriff Eddie Bradshaw said his deputies are working to find the culprits who left the residents in Wayne in a mess this week.
Vandals broke into a mine site and damaged an Appalachian Power substation on the mine property. The damage included spilling close to 500 gallons of oil which wound up in nearby Camp Creek. Although there’s been no tests which revealed the town of Wayne’s water supply was impacted, city officials have advised customers to not use the water for drinking or cooking until further notice. The county’s emergency services has been distributing bottled water to residents all week.
“We’ve got a lot of resources trying to take care of the the citizens of Wayne that are serviced by the water company. It’s been awful,” said Bradshaw.
Deputies have been following up leads in hopes of tracking down the person or possibly multiple persons who were involved. Bradshaw said it’s not the first time the mine has been targeted by thieves and vandals.
“There’s been several thefts in that area. As a matter of fact, there’s a trial going on right now for a 2023 or ’24 case in which a person was arrested there for vandalism and theft,” said the Sheriff.
Deputies hoped information from the public would help locate the suspects and Bradshaw said once they have an arrest, they intend to charge them with an array of crimes, both felony and misdemeanors.
“There’s going to be a variety of charges. Once it’s all done and the investigation is complete and we identify a suspect, we’ll take the case to the prosecutor and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
On Tuesday, West Virginia Department of Health released that the town began flushing the town’s water system. The Uni-directional flushing will begin at the treatment plant and will follow the flow of water through the entire distribution system. After that, samples will be sent to a laboratory and if nothing is deteced in the samples, they will give out residential flushing instructions.
The “Do Not Consume” order is set to remain in place until the flushing is done. The process is expected to take seven to 10 days.