Waterline work causes headaches in Ronceverte

May 8—Five years ago the state Public Service Commission ordered the city of Ronceverte to dramatically reduce its water delivery system's loss due to leaks. And while the city has made modest progress in addressing waterline failures — dropping the loss rate from 72 percent in August 2016 to between 60 and 65 percent today — it is still leagues away from the 15 percent rate the PSC demands.

Finally, late last month, Ronceverte began what is expected to be a six-month process of replacing corroded and crumbling pipelines throughout the city, leaving sections of the municipality without running water for hours and sometimes days at a time. Boil water advisories were announced, city crews worked around the clock to close off each new break in the pipes to restore enough water pressure to allow disgruntled residents to take a shower or flush a toilet, and City Hall staff fielded complaints by the dozens.

According to information disseminated at a May 3 city council meeting, officials hope that most of the work on two major segments of the larger project now underway will be completed within two months.

Working with a $4.5 million budget financed through a package that includes bonds, grants, loans and forgivable loans, Ronceverte has no choice but to tackle the water system's numerous problems in stages, city administrator Pamela Mentz told The Register-Herald.

The primary issues plaguing Ronceverte's waterlines are familiar to small towns everywhere — aging pipes criss-crossing town unmapped and unmarked.

"There's no map of the waterlines," Mentz said. "They're unmarked, not documented. When the workers start to dig, they don't know where an intersecting line is going to be until they hit it, and then that causes another break."

She said nine separate leaks had to be addressed in a single day last week, including a main line break that necessitated shutting down the city's main tank. The town of Alderson dispatched a crew to help out with that crisis. Ronceverte's five full-time and three part-time public works employees are being pushed to the limit, Mentz said.

A date was found on one section of rotting terra cotta pipe near the town's bank, indicating the line was 119 years old, she said. The pipe was half-filled with more than a century's worth of mineral deposits, severely limiting the water flow.

Mayor David Smith referenced the web of 100-year-old waterlines when explaining the difficulties confronting Ronceverte in 2016, when the city embarked on the leak remediation ordered by the PSC.

"There are intersecting waterlines — bypassed lines," the mayor said at the time. "We use engineers now; 100 years ago, they didn't."

In order to work on the randomly-interconnected lines and the aging water tanks that serve them, contractors and city crews have had to cut off water service to certain sections of town.

But Mentz said last week that the only customers who have had to be placed under a boil water advisory are those served by the main tank, which is earmarked for replacement in the current wide-ranging project. Residents of the Brier Hill and Squirrel Hill parts of town "have had water all along," Mentz said.

She also countered reports on social media and complaints City Hall has received about water bills skyrocketing recently due to the work being done on the lines. People also have been demanding bill adjustments because they believe they shouldn't have to pay for days or hours without water.

The problem with that reasoning is that water billing isn't based on how many days of service a household logs, but on the amount of water used at that address.

"Our customers are not billed until the water goes through their meter," Mentz said. "It's not like a TV cable bill where you pay by the day; water bills are only based on consumption."

She noted, however, that if pipes are leaking on the individual customer's side of the meter, the billed amount will likely be higher until the customer gets the faulty pipes repaired.

A public Facebook link posted by the Ronceverte River Festival on Wednesday warned that when the water has to be shut off for a repair or replacement of a line, that line fills with air which is then compressed when the water flow is restored. The pressure of that air being pushed through the dilapidated old lines can cause new breaks, both in the public waterlines and in household pipes.

The city administrator also pointed out that the city sends out a single bill to each customer each month, with charges for water, sewer, trash collection and a municipal fee. "That bill isn't all for water," she emphasized.

Mentz readily acknowledged the inconvenience Ronceverte's water customers are enduring.

Through a cooperative effort with the county, other municipalities and local businesses, the city has secured donations of water for distribution to its public utility customers who are suffering outages.

Mentz acknowledged the assistance of Paula Brown with Greenbrier County Homeland Security and Emergency Services in facilitating the arrival of a West Virginia American Water tanker truck, which is set up across from Tri-County Produce. People can bring their own containers and fill them from the tanker every day between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Both Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs have offered to refill the tanker when it runs dry, Mentz said.

Bottled water is also being distributed at that same site. The Lewisburg Walmart store donated 19 pallets (now exhausted), Pepsi donated 14 pallets and the Fairlea Kroger was scheduled to replenish the town's supply of bottled water on Saturday.

"If there's anybody who can't get to the water distribution point, we will deliver water to them," Mentz said. "And if anyone has ideas on how we can better deal with this situation, we ask that they share those ideas with us."

Throughout the current crisis, food for the public works crew and City Hall workers has been provided by the River Festival, the Edgarton Café and various individuals, according to social media posts.

In addition, the Rev. Stephen Baldwin, whose church and home are in Ronceverte, attended last week's city council meeting and offered state resources, if needed. Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, is the West Virginia Senate minority leader.

Mentz said, while city officials have not made any specific requests of Baldwin, they appreciate his offer of help from the state in addressing their efforts to deliver safe drinking water to the people of Ronceverte.

She said officials do not expect any additional water rate increase to result from the projects now underway, which include replacing two water tanks and an assortment of waterlines, as well as upgrading water meters to a more modern radio read model. But she also pointed out that more work is anticipated on the antiquated water delivery system, the cost of which will only be known after future phases of the larger project are put to bid.

— Email: talvey@register-herald.com