West Virginia communities celebrate completion of water infrastructure upgrades

NORTHFORK, W.Va. (AP) — Several communities in West Virginia’s southern coalfields celebrated the completion of a long-awaited project to bring clean water to local communities last week.

The Elkhorn Water Project began in 2015 and included a new 400,000-gallon water storage tank on Elkhorn Mountain. The recently completed phase two brings county water to 112 McDowell County Service District customers in Upland, Kyle and Powhatan; 163 customers in Northfork and Algoma; and 101 in Keystone, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.

Many water systems in the area were installed in the early 1900s by coal companies and have been failing for years. Residents of Keystone, for example, were under a boil water notice for more than a decade.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., met with local and state officials on Thursday to celebrate the completion phase two. Capito said clean drinking water is among the basic infrastructure rights, which includes good roads and broadband access.

Capito also stopped in nearby Kimball to discuss $495,840 in direct spending to provide sanitary septic and sewerage service to 35 households, including 80 people, through the Dig Deep Appalachia Water Project in McDowell County, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.

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