Raleigh County wastewater plant to get major upgrade

Apr. 22—A multi-million-dollar upgrade to a wastewater treatment plant in Raleigh County will expand the plant's capacity in anticipation of the region's economic growth.

The nearly $9 million upgrade to Shady Spring Public Service District's Glen Morgan wastewater treatment plant is expected to increase the plant's capacity by roughly 25 percent.

Raleigh County Commission President Dave Tolliver said the project was initially started to provide water and sewer service to Grandview residents.

Tolliver said they quickly realized that expanding customer numbers was impossible without upgrading the plant's capacity.

Construction on the project will take two years and is expected to start soon. There should be no interruption for customers while upgrades take place.

During a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at the Glen Morgan plant, Jerry Smith, Shady Spring Public Service District general manager, said the project has been nearly four years in the making.

"It gives the council the ability to expand in this area, which is needed for economical growth," Smith said. "Water and sewer is critical for economic development."

He added that the project started with a $1 million investment from the Raleigh County Commission, which helped get the ball rolling on engineering.

Smith said the Glen Morgan plant now serves over 5,000 metered customers. He said the plant typically runs at about 80 percent capacity or roughly 1.2 million gallons of water per day.

Following the upgrades, Smith said the plant will accommodate 1.6 million gallons of water per day.

Shady Spring PSD Board Chairman Jim Wood said the expansion will allow them to provide service to homes in Grandview that have never had access to public water and sewer and to newly constructed homes and businesses.

He added that with all the financial support from the federal, state, and local agencies, Shady Spring PSD could afford the project with minimal impact on its customers.

"If we hadn't had the grants, we would have had a really hard time ... otherwise, we would have had astronomical price increases," Wood said.

In addition to $1 million from Raleigh County Commission's American Rescue Plan Act funding, Shady Spring PSD also received $6.5 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a $500,000 non-federal match from the West Virginia Governor's Office and 1.5 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Wood said Shay Spring PSD had a 7-8 percent rate increase prior to the start of the project and will have another slight rate increase once the project is complete.

"Sewer is an afterthought," Wood said. "But if you want economic expansion, you've got to have the facilities and land ready."

Wood said the Glen Morgan plant upgrade will lead to expansions elsewhere in the Shady Spring PSD system.

"Right now, our systems at Flat Top and this (Glen Morgan) plant don't touch. So we would like to expand it and connect it so the Cool Ridge Post Office would someday connect to our system at Shady Spring Elementary, and that way, it would be one contiguous system," he said. "But that's down the road a little bit. We've got to get this (project) done first."