Photo caption: Fire hydrants are a bit of a gray area when it comes to regulation in state code, which further complicates the efforts to study and maintain them. (Leann Ray | West Virginia Watch)
BY: CAITY COYNE – OCTOBER 19, 2023 6:00 AM
As the 2024 regular session approaches, the West Virginia Public Service Commission is asking the Legislature to grant $7 million to the agency for help to test and repair fire hydrants at mostly small, rural water systems across the state.
The request comes as the PSC is undergoing an investigation into the flow and capacity for the state’s fire hydrants. The investigation opened earlier this year, after firefighters on Charleston’s West Side were unable to extinguish a residential fire due to a lack of ample water supply at surrounding fire hydrants. The hydrants were operated by West Virginia American Water, which has been named in an ongoing lawsuit following the fire.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, West Virginia’s rate of casualties from all fires and residential, structural fires is annually more than double the national average. In 2022, according to the agency, about 7.8% of emergency calls in West Virginia were for fires, compared to just 3.7% of emergency calls made nationwide.
At least 247 of the state’s roughly 272 public water utilities have filed paperwork with the PSC detailing the testing of their hydrants, according to the agency’s incoming document database.
PSC Chair Charlotte Lane told lawmakers on the Joint Standing Committee on Technology and Infrastructure on Tuesday that she was “pretty pleased” with the response rate so far. The original deadline for the responses was Aug. 1, but by Aug. 7 — the last time the infrastructure committee met to discuss the hydrants — only about half the utilities had filed their reports, leading the agency to extend the deadline.
“We are dealing with small water utilities who have small staffs, or sometimes no staff or volunteer staff, and some of these utilities have difficulty doing any type of paperwork,” Lane told lawmakers on Tuesday. “So, we continue to work with them and try to help them in any way we can.”
More than half of the state’s public water utilities serve fewer than 1,000 customers, according to a West Virginia Watch analysis of the most recent annual reports filed by the systems with the PSC. Only 18 public water utilities in the state report serving more than 5,000 people.
Lane said that she’s heard estimates of between $5,000 and $15,000 for hydrant replacements, which are costly investments for small utilities.
“Small utilities, unless they have that already set in their rates, can’t afford it,” Lane said.
Small water utilities in the state are often cash-strapped, relying only on the bills paid by customers — through set rates and, if more investment is needed, rate increases — to fund their upkeep, maintenance and upgrades. A majority of water infrastructure funding and investment in West Virginia comes from long-term, high-interest loans, which can be burdensome for utilities that are seeing their customer bases shrink with population loss.
Fire hydrants are a bit of a gray area when it comes to regulation in state code, Lane told lawmakers, which further complicates the efforts to study and maintain them. They’re not quite a public utility, Lane told lawmakers, but the investigation was ordered under the PSC’s jurisdiction in order to have as complete a picture as possible when studying them and identifying gaps in service.
Lane told lawmakers that — according to the agency’s research — about 91% of the state’s 47,000 fire hydrants are owned by public utilities. About 900 hydrants in the state are at least 100 years old.
While 70% of hydrants in the state have been inspected within the last five years, less than half the utilities in the state — about 44% — have enforced maintenance and inspection procedures on their books.
National protocols require compliant fire hydrants to be tested every three to five years. Lane told lawmakers that if they supported giving the PSC jurisdiction to regulate hydrants in the state, the agency would need some funding to perform the additional work. That work would include giving engineering and technical support to struggling water systems and implementing enforcement procedures for all utilities.
Lane proposed that the $7 million requested by the PSC go to the state’s Infrastructure and Jobs Development Fund, a clearinghouse responsible for approving and overseeing funding for all infrastructure projects in the state. Of that money, $3 million would be used to create a new grant fund at the council specifically for hydrant testing and inspections. The remaining $4 million would create low- or no-interest loans for water systems to apply for that would cover potential repairs and replacements on hydrants.
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