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Jake Frye doesn’t trust the water in Logan County.
The water filters he uses at his house clog up every two to four weeks, when they should last three months. He doesn’t let his kids soak in the tub, for fear of what the water could do to their skin.
Ashley Bunch, from Sophia in Raleigh County, spends $200 a month on bottled water for herself and her son Otis. Before pouring a cup of water from a dispenser, she assures the boy it’s safe to drink.
And Colin Ross, 33, of Fayette County said for as long as he can remember, the creek in his holler has smelled of sewage. But he uses the water from his tap, despite the stench of sulfur wafting from it.
All three came to the West Virginia State Capitol this week to demand lawmakers do something to fix drinking water in the southern part of West Virginia. They showed their support at a small rally outside the House of Delegates chamber hosted by From Below, an activist group advocating for clean water in the southern coalfields.
At the beginning of the session, Del. Anitra Hamliton, D-Monongalia, and Del. David Green, R-McDowell, told organizers they would push a bill to spend $250 million in Rainy Day Fund money for water projects in nine southern coalfield counties.
Instead, Green threw his support behind a bill filed last week that would start a fund for 13 southern counties. The bill would only spend $10 million — just 4% of the initial ask.
Green said he could not get support to tap the $1.4 billion Rainy Day Fund and that doing so would affect the state’s bond ratings.
In just four counties the outstanding water projects would cost $287 million.
“I wasn’t going to go run the $250 (million) just to appease people, my people in my county, or the advocates,” Green said. “I am extremely appreciative of every single advocate that’s advocating on the behalf of southern West Virginia. We need it. But I also wanted to be able to solve the problem.”
Brad Davis, a Methodist pastor and community organizer in McDowell County, said $10 million doesn’t do anything for the problem.
“As a parishioner of mine said, who also happens to be a public service district member, ‘$10 million will not get the paperwork filed for all of the work that needs to be done across those 13 counties,’” Davis said.
Green introduced another bill Tuesday that could add another $10 million to help with water, bringing the potential grand total of relief up to $20 million.
And Hamilton introduced a bill that would allow the lawmakers to tap Rainy Day funds for a water emergency, but she did not include a dollar amount.
She noted that there’s no hope of her bill seeing any action because bills submitted by Democrats do not make it onto committee agendas in the Republican dominated Legislature.
Del. Adam Vance, R-Wyoming, is the lead sponsor on the 13-county water fund bill. Last year, Vance held up business in the last couple days of the session after a $100,000 water project for his county was cut from the budget bill.
He said his bill isn’t enough to bring clean drinking water to the area either.
“It’s not a cure-all. It’s not the exact thing that’s going to secure it,” Vance said. “But right now, we have nothing.”
Davis said the need is too dire to do things incrementally.
“We don’t have the time to wait for that. People are dying now. People are getting sick and people are dying,” Davis said. “People can’t use the water. It’s 2026, in the wealthiest nation in the world. Let’s somehow, some way, find a way to address it and to fix it.”
Reach reporter Henry Culvyhouse at henry@mountainstatespotlight.org
