MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Representative David McKinley and Senator Shelley Moore Capito toured key infrastructure projects in Morgantown on Monday.
The tour started at the Morgantown Utility Board Wastewater Treatment Plant located in Star City, MUB officials spoke about the aging water and sewer systems currently being used with plans to modernize these systems.
“Every elected official county, city, whatever wants economic development they want jobs, but you can’t have jobs if you don’t have sewer waterlines available sites that’s not been dependable,” said McKinley.
Next they inspected the Richard Abandoned Mine Land site in Morgantown, where acid drainage is seeping from the abandoned mine.
EPA officials said that the mine water run-off pH levels are currently around 4-4.5 and it needs to be around 7 pH.
Up stream there is plenty of fish in the water, but where the mine runs-off into the creek there are no fish to be found and the only ones there are dead fish.
“This could be a trout stream that can go back miles now and that people could be fishing in, it’s great for economic development and it’s also for the culture of the people,” said McKinley, “to be able to have something that they know they can go mountain biking, they can go trout fishing, they can go on boating, they can go on all these things, this is powerful.”
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection plan to build a limestone cleaning facility at the Richard AML site to clean the metals out of the mine run-off that’s currently going into Deckers Creek and into the Monongalia River.
There is also a plan to collect the metals and rare earth metals that are found in the water and separate them by manipulating the pH levels, different metals have different solubility which can be extracted.
Abandoned Mine Lands will receive more than $140 Million in funding over the next 15 years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“With these efforts we may actually clean up every abandoned mine site pre-1976. That is a huge accomplishment,” said Capito.
The hope is to ensure West Virginians have access to clean water, more economic opportunities, and bring more jobs across the state.
Capito said, “If your competing against somebody else and you can’t fulfill the recreation and outdoor and beautiful things that we have all throughout our state, were going to fall a bit short and we don’t want that to be the reason that we are falling short.”
Both Rep. McKinley and Sen. Capito hoped to not only have clean drinking water, but clean rivers and streams to attract more people to want to come live and stay in W.V.
Rep. McKinley discussed how West Virginia is going to get the seventh highest per capita in the country with the Infrastructure Bill, so that the state can catch up with other states. He also discusses how other states are going to have to pitch in because W.Va. has been powering the country for decades.
“We powered the world and especially this country with energy now they are going to step back in and help us pay to clean it up,” said McKinley.