PARKERSBURG — The Claywood Park Public Service District will be receiving just under $1 million in federal funds to update over four miles of water lines.

U.S Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R- W.Va., recently made the announcement of funding to communities across the state from a variety of federal agencies for environmental protection, economic development, public safety, and research programs in West Virginia, as well as conservation efforts at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.

Claywood Park PSD will be receiving $940,000 in USDA Rural Development Loan Funding to upgrade the district’s water lines in the Dutch Ridge Road and Meadville Road areas of Wood County.

These communities have grown and established themselves around the existing water lines. By increasing the waterline size, the district will also be able to provide fire protection to these communities, according to a press release from Capito’s office.

“I’m happy to see these resources coming to strengthen our rural communities’ ability to provide safe and reliable water services in West Virginia,” Capito said in the press release. “Whether it is a water line extension or maintenance of existing services, it is vital to our communities to continue to make investments like these that lead to safer and reliable services.”

Claywood Park PSD General Manager Shayne Brabham said the project, which is expected to start construction in Spring 2025, is a “line replacement” of an existing line.

“We are replacing the entire line across Dutch Ridge Road from Route 47 to U.S. Route 50,” he said.

That section was part of their original water system and they had a number of leaks over the years and service interruptions.

“It is a little bit undersized at this point due to the growth of the area,” Brabham said. “We are going to increase the line size which will also allow us to add fire protection to that area.”

The line will be a 6-inch PVC line which will replace a 4-inch line.

It will replace over four-and-a-half miles of lines. It will upgrade what is already there. No new customers are expected to be immediately added as a result.

“We have two crossings under U.S. 50 that we will be replacing as well,” Brabham said.

They are expecting to have everything in place to proceed on the project by the end of the year with work expected to be underway by the following spring. All of the engineering work is complete and permits obtained.

“We are currently in the right-of-way stage right now and we are getting additional private right-of-ways off of property owners,” Brabham said. “That is what we are doing now. All the permitting is done and complete.”

The project is being funded through two sources, the USDA Rural Development Loan Funding and the other portion is $1.25 million from an Economic Enhancement Grant through the Water Development Authority.

“The need is great to get this taken care of,” Brabham said.