Several attendees of a Wednesday night meeting on West Virginia American Water's proposed "source water protection plan" for its Kanawha Valley Water System stressed that the system needs a second source of drinking water.
After about a 20-minute presentation on the purpose of the plan, West Virginia American representatives took questions from the audience of about a dozen people at BridgeValley Community and Technical College's South Charleston campus.
South Hills resident Kent Higgins gave the first inquiry: "Would you point me in this draft to where it talks about providing an alternate source of supply for the Charleston plant?"
Nate Kelly - principal planner for the Horsley Witten Group, a Sandwich, Massachusetts-based water resource planning and engineering firm that West Virginia American hired to aid with its public meetings surrounding the water protection plans - responded that the Kanawha River is now eligible to become that second source.
But he's said there's still work to be done before that possibility becomes a reality. He said the company has been collecting water quality data for over half a year, and that will continue into the summer. He said when that process is done, there will still be a few months to "analyze that data, and then potentially move forward looking at costs and infrastructure."
Charleston City Councilwoman Karan Ireland then asked how long the system, which currently draws only from the Elk River, could operate off reserves without intaking more water. Kelly said the question was asked at a previous meeting, and said the answer depends on the demand at the time, suggesting there could be about "a day or two of potential reserve there."
Fred Stottlemyer, the former general manager of the South Putnam Public Service District who will have been a West Virginia American customer for 50 years come July, responded that he believes the plan's statement that the local plant has about 40 million gallons of storage is "misinformation."
He said a West Virginia American Water engineer stated, around the time of the January 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill, that such storage doesn't serve the entire system.
Stottlemyer said he prefers the idea of building a reservoir, like the Putnam Public Service District built after a spill, rather than using the Kanawha River as the secondary water source. He partnered with Joe Mullins, a well-known local sculptor who also served as an urban planner in the Governor's Office in the 1960s, to craft a $25 million to $35 million plan for creating a new lake at Coonskin Park that could provide West Virginia American Water with a 28-day supply.
The plan currently lists a five-day supply of raw water storage as an alternative water source option. But it lists the estimated cost at $129 million.
"Determining your hazards is absolutely important and very good, but unless you can turn off the water intake, there are all sorts of scenarios I can do in my head that you can't plan for," said Barbara Smith, a South Hills resident.
Legislation passed after the 2014 Freedom Industries spill, which contaminated the Elk River, requires water providers to complete source water protection plans that, among other things, must include study of alternative supply options. Those plans are due to the state by July 1.
West Virginia American Water spokeswoman Laura Jordan said Wednesday evening's meeting was the 10th in a series of 14 that the company is hosting for each of its water systems across the state. She said the meetings have had about 45 attendees so far, including the dozen Wednesday night and the roughly 15 more who attended a meeting that afternoon at BridgeValley.
Though company representatives said West Virginia American Water will accept comments on the plan on an ongoing basis and it will be amended in the future, May 2 is the deadline for comments before the plan is submitted to the state for initial approval. Comments also may be submitted online at the company's website.
Jennifer Heymann, West Virginia American Water's source water protection manager, said the source water protection plan is about identifying risks to the water, seeking to reduce those risks and knowing how to react to them.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.