CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Patrick Morrisey continued his water system upgrade announcements Thursday with Wayne County being the beneficiary.
Morrisey said he learned during his two-day southern coalfields water listening tour earlier this month of problems with water in Wayne, Fort Gay, Crum and other areas.
He announced Thursday plans to forward $4 million for a back-up water line for the community of Crum. Morrisey said Crum has had plans but not the money to finish the project.
“We need to turn these decisions to pipe in the ground,” Morrisey said. “This is an emergency connection. We need to make it a reality.”
According to the governor’s office, the line will connect the Crum PSD to Lavalette, securing three independent water sources through Kermit, Kenova, and the Mingo PSD to prevent future outages.
“This pipeline will connect an alternative water source all the way to Kenova from the Crum Public Service District,” Morrisey said.
Governor Morrisey Announces Major Infrastructure Investments and Water System Fixes For Wayne County pic.twitter.com/uL2VK31eUz
— Governor Patrick Morrisey (@wvgovernor) August 20, 2026
A second project will extend the Fort Gay water system to the Lavalette PSD. Morrisey said he’ll ask the state Water Development Authority to target $150,000 to the project.
Morrisey previously announced the third project. It’s an agreement with West Virginia American Water Company to check out the leaks in the Town of Wayne’s water system which has been losing about 70 percent of its water.
Members of the Wayne County Commission and Del. Ryan Browning, R-Wayne, were on hand for Thursday’s announcements.
Browning thanked Morrisey and said the support was long overdue.
“We’ve let our infrastructure become in disrepair and it’s actually caused serious problems as far as economic development goes and creating jobs for the people of Wayne County,” Browning said.
Morrisey thanked both the legislature and the state’s congressional delegation for supporting water projects.
“As a team, we can make a big difference in approving water quality in southern West Virginia and across our entire state. That’s what I’m committing to doing, big things for West Virginia and we’re going to keep going,” Morrisey said.