Bradshaw to get $1 million for wastewater system upgrade

BRADSHAW — The Town of Bradshaw in McDowell County will be receiving a $1 million grant to renovate its wastewater system.

Senators Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., made the announcement of the grant Tuesday as part of about $17 million through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Investment Program.

The funding will be used to invest and expand seven public works projects and facilities as well as hospitals and affordable housing across the state.

Capito, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the rural development investment will be used to convert Bradshaw’s wastewater system to a traditional “gravity system.”

This project will consolidate the majority of the customers onto centralized pumping stations for system efficiency and energy savings, she said. Multiple high maintenance, high energy, consumption grinder pumps and vacuum stations will be removed.

Capito said the system is a “hybrid compilation of multiple technologies that suffers from high-energy consumption, regular component malfunctions, infiltration, and excessive staff time requirements.”

The system was completed in the mid-1990s, and both the lines and the plant have exceeded their useful life expectancy.

“I’m glad to see this funding headed to West Virginia through USDA’s Rural Development program, which will help support our rural communities and help them better meet the needs of the people who live there” Capito said in the announcement. “I will continue my efforts to secure resources that increase the availability of health services, strengthen our infrastructure, and improve the lives of our residents in West Virginia.”

Manchin, who is also a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said funding these projects will pay dividends for decades.

“Investing in our communities spurs economic development and creates good-paying, long-term jobs,” he said. “I am pleased USDA is investing more than $17.3 million in these seven critical projects across our great state, including a historic $14.3 million expansion of Boone Memorial Hospital. I look forward to seeing the positive impacts of this funding for decades to come and, as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will continue advocating for resources to ensure rural communities across the Mountain State have what they need to thrive.”