By: Mike Tony
Drinking water quality struggles are intensifying for West Virginia water service providers as water system takeovers loom. Gary’s case underscores the PSC’s and some local leaders’ push for greater coordination and consolidation of water service providers struggling with aging infrastructure and dwindling customer bases in vulnerable places like McDowell County, whose percentage of people in poverty in 2023, 36.2%, was the state’s highest and more than triple the national rate. The case also underscores the Legislature’s failure in its latest annual regular legislative session that ended last month to controversially empower the PSC to force mergers between public service districts.