RICHWOOD, W.Va. — Drinking water might be something you take for granted–unless you live in the areas of Hinkle Mountain and Little Laurel Road in Nicholas County near Richwood.
“Hinkle Mountain and portions of Little Laurel Road near Richwood are probably the only unwatered (sic) spots left in Nicholas County,” Richwood Mayor Robert Johnson said.
According to Johnson, for decades there has been a hope that the town of Richwood would be able to use their waste water treatment plant to supply water to the 100-odd residents who’s well water had been getting dirtier and dirtier over the years. But for one reason or another, the project could never get off the ground.
“I don’t want to call it a lack of will, but just the understanding that it was a hugely expensive process and a goodly number of prospective customers would need to sign on–early on in the process,” Johnson said.
The new customers would require about 30,000 gallons of water from the Richwood Waste Water Treatment Plant each day.
“Many of the wells in [Hinkle Mountain and parts of Little Laurel Road] are either contaminated or so heavily mineralized (sic) that it’s red water,” he said. “Unsuitable for doing laundry. Much of it can not really be clarified to be used for much of anything.”
In 2012, the Richwood common council voted to approve the project, but even three years later the battle remains something of an uphill charge. The current waste water treatment plant needs to be upgraded, including infrastructure changes. In total, the cost of bringing clean drinking to the Hinkle Mountain and Little Laurel Road residents is near $7.5 million dollars.
Johnson said it’s absolutely worth it.
“The addition of adequate water at adequate pressure and the installation of common-place things like fire hydrants will be just light years ahead of what is currently available.”
Johnson views the project as vital to any hope for an expansion of the town. Most of Richwood is built on a flood-plain–making engineering an expansion incredibly complicated and costly.
“Any new construction would be very expensive to engineer and to build in the flood plain,” Johnson said.
“The generally large farm tracts of land [in Hinkle Mountain] would certainly lend themselves to development provided the area is supplied with credible water.”
It’s a rare time when good public policy and economics seem to make cross paths. Richwood invests in it’s infrastructure, picks up new revenue from new water customers, and provides clean and cheaper water for a group of citizens who have wanted it for more than 30 years.
“The ability to go to the kitchen sink and turn on the tap for a glass of good, cool drinking water is an unrecognized luxury,” Johnson said.
The costs would likely go down once the new customers begin receiving water from Richwood, but the Public Service Commission still needs to rule on a rate. Johnson said their rates would be higher than existing customers, but would still be far less than many are spending now.
The proposed rate structure would be built to cover the operating costs of production, new employees, equipment, maintenance, and underground piping.
“Whatever’s necessary, plus the maintenance of those things is likely to be incorporated into a rate structure,” Johnson said.
According to Johnson, many of the potential new water customers are spending $150 per month on water using a variety of methods.
“Whether they haul it themselves or whether they create a well-water system,” he said. “And the supply is not guaranteed, either.”
Towns like Richwood don’t just have $7.5 million dollars to throw around, but Johnson believes the town will qualify for around four to five million dollars in grant money.
The Nicholas County Commission has already pledged $100,000 for the design phase. Any money leftover can be used in development. The Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has also pledged design funding.
Prospective grants could come from the Small Cities Block Grant ($1.5 million), Huntington District Corps of Engineers, the Rural Utility Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council.
That process is no small undertaking.
“Depending on the application deadlines and available funding resources, we will be applying for funding for the next year or two or more possibly,” Johnson said.
“There will be easily six or eight or ten major funding players in the process as well as this city and it’s Water Board.”
The remaining money will likely need to be borrowed or raised with a bond issue, according to Johnson.
“Some of the lenders do 30 and 40-year at relatively low interest rates for repayment,” Johnson said.
Johnson hopes the necessary upgrades to the Richwood Waste Water Plant will begin sometime in 2017. After that, construction could take between 12 and 18 months to complete.
“Construction in West Virginia is often dictated by the season and the weather, and obviously there is a limited number of construction months,” Johnson said.
30 years and more this project remains in the making, but Johnson said he can see a light slowly approaching from the end of a long tunnel.
“We believe that the work is worth it, and the customers have continued to be supportive throughout this most recent process,” Johnson said. “And maybe there wasn’t as cohesive enough effort in times past.”