MAN Logan County officials are negotiating a potential agreement with West Virginia American Water which could see the sale of two of the county’s water utilities.
The Buffalo Creek Public Service District (PSD) is facing a critical infrastructure crisis, as revealed during a meeting held Thursday evening at Man High School's little theater.
Buffalo Creek PSD General Manager Herby Pruitt painted a dire picture of the utility's current state, saying it’s on its last leg.
“It could give up tomorrow,” he said. “I’d like to say it like this: we’re one heartbeat away from a disaster – not only a disaster in the Triadelphia area, but we know it goes into the Guyandotte River. The Guyandotte River does not flow just to Logan, but it continues for a long way. How far will it go, you don’t know, but we’re one heartbeat away from a total disaster.”
The Buffalo Creek wastewater treatment plant, originally designed to process 750,000 gallons daily, is now handling up to 1.4 million gallons, far exceeding its capacity. Pruitt warned of potential sewage overflow into streets and homes if the plant fails.
Financial struggles compound the infrastructure issues. Pruitt said that the PSD has depleted its savings and is struggling to pay bills, including a recent $26,000 expense for a new computer system.
“They’ve got this Taplin/Rita job that they’ve just done, and that has really put us to the final draw, if you will. It’s very serious, because we cannot financially do it,” Pruitt said.
“It’s $12,000 a month that we have been paying for five months that is not even hooked up. The customers are not hooked up, they’re not finished with the thing, but we’ve been paying on it for five months, and when it is hooked up, we’re only going to have maybe a thousand dollars out of the $12,000. So, it’s everything that we have saved up, we have absolutely spent. We’ve had several things, we’ve had drives go down. We’ve had wells at the water plant that’s broke. We had to get a new computer system. That was $26,000. It’s just absolutely draining us. Financially, we are in a crisis.”
In response to these challenges, West Virginia American Water is in talks with county officials and PSD representatives about acquiring both the Buffalo Creek and Logan County PSDs. Brooks Crislip, Business Development Director for West Virginia American Water, estimated that addressing the issues in both PSDs would require an investment of approximately $150 million over the next five years.
Crislip outlined the potential benefits of acquisition, including rehiring existing employees, beginning improvements quickly, and spreading the upgrade costs across a much larger customer base. While rates would need to increase to fund necessary improvements, Crislip suggested the increase would be gradual, potentially around $30 on average over two to three years.
“If West Virginia American Water were to come in here and buy this system, what happens to my rates? The short answer is it’d have to go up because the system needs a total reboot, but the good news is it doesn’t have to go up to $200, it doesn’t have to go up to $300 a month,” he said. “We have about 200,000 customers almost all across the state of West Virginia, so if we invest $70 million on the Buffalo Creek PSD assets, we can spread those costs out across that entire customer base so that that’s spread out amongst all of West Virginia as opposed to just right here.”
The acquisition process, if approved, would require a six to seven-month review by the West Virginia Public Service Commission. In the meantime, Crislip stated that West Virginia American Water is willing to provide immediate assistance if needed, citing their rapid response protocols for utilities in crisis. The company is currently providing aid to the Mingo County PSD, which is experiencing a water outage affecting a large portion of its customer base. Crislip said a water tanker had been deployed to a local fire department in Mingo County, offering clean water to affected residents.
This development comes in the wake of the 2020 Distressed and Failing Utilities Act, which gave the state Public Service Commission the authority to declare a utility “distressed,” which is essentially “condemning” the utility like a dilapidated building.
PHOTO | Robert Fields