MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Utility Board is calling on the Monongalia County Commission and Morgantown City Council for assistance in light of recent flooding brought on by historic rain events.
Specifically, MUB is asking both to allocate American Rescue Plan Act funds for system upgrades.
“We have requested $1 million in ARP funding from the city and roughly the same amount from the County Commission to make improvements to portions of Popenoe Run storm and sanitary sewer systems,” MUB Spokesman Chris Dale said.
Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said Monday the commission has verbally agreed to fill that request.
Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy said city administration has been in communication with MUB regarding use of ARP funding.
“If there is a way to mitigate flooding then city administration would help as best it could, but any commitment of ARPA funds will come after the community engagement period, the development of an action plan and with the approval of city council,” Stacy said, referencing the city’s effort to solicit public input on ARP expenditures via public meetings and an online survey, located at bit.ly/COMARPA.
“This can’t keep happening,” Bloom said. He went on to say people pointing the finger at MUB need to consider the amount of rain the system is taking in during these storms.
On June 13, heavy rains brought the area to a standstill, flooding homes, uprooting trees and sending torrents of water rushing down Patteson Drive and other streets, stranding drivers.
At the time, it was called a 100-year rain event.
Then it all happened again on July 29, only worse.
“The storm that occurred on July 29 was beyond even the event of June 13. It is the largest rain event in Morgantown since 1950,” Dale said, noting a monitoring station at the top of South Park measured 6.5 inches of rain in a three-and-a-half hour span.
He said the deluge even overwhelmed portions of MUB’s system built to handle 100-year type rain events, including in the Suncrest area.
“Given the unprecedented nature of these back-to-back storms, our system performed extraordinarily well,” Dale said, adding “The floods were acts of nature and not the result of any failure on the part of MUB’s stormwater infrastructure.”
Even so, system upgrades could help prevent future flooding.
Water and sewer improvements are among the stated priorities for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Included in that number is $360 billion in one-time aid directly allocated to states, counties and municipalities.
Combined, more than $31 million is coming to Monongalia County ($20,513,893) and Morgantown ($11,243,509).
Both have received the first of two equal installments and expect the second to arrive next spring or summer.
The deadline to obligate the money is Dec. 31, 2024.
“I hope that we can move forward on this as soon as possible. To me, that would be a great use of the ARP funds,” Bloom said. “We can complain and argue, but the question is how are we going to resolve this issue?”
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