MORGANTOWN — Poorly designed, improperly constructed and rarely maintained.
That, to paraphrase, is how Richard residents describe the West Virginia Department of Highways infrastructure intended to deliver groundwater, including rust-colored mine runoff, past their homes and into Deckers Creek.
When the system fills with sediment, water forces its way through the road surface. In the winter, it’s a sheet of ice. The rest of the year murky, red water pools along a stretch of Earl Core Road (W.Va. 7), where passing vehicles, including a steady stream of large trucks, splash it onto homes and vehicles, including those owned by Sherry Phillips.
It’s been a persistent issue for years.
“If this was Suncrest or Cheat Lake, we wouldn’t be living like this. But this is a dinky little place that nobody wants anything to do with. So they don’t want to hear and they don’t want to see,” Phillips said. “But now it’s costing them money. Now it’s a priority.”
Phillips was out in the cold Tuesday morning demanding paperwork from the DOH establishing their personnel had permission to access her property to clear the aforementioned system.
The state now needs to get the standing water off the road as it’s causing issues for the W.Va. 7 resurfacing project.
Kevin Dailey, who owns a number of properties along the same stretch, said the residents are using whatever leverage they can to get the state to fix the underlying issue.
“Otherwise, we’ll be right back here. The system fills back up; the water forces its way up through the new road surface and we’re again left on our own, unable to get anybody to respond,” Dailey said. “It has their attention now because it’s a problem for them. I know these guys are just out here doing their jobs, but this is our life every day.”
Dailey, who’s gone so far as to dig a moat along the front of his properties, said the issues with the existing system start with the fact that it runs upstream and includes two 90-degree bends. It also runs through an inlet box that appears to be installed backwards, meaning the water enters the box at a lower level than it exits.
Dailey said a DOH representative confirmed to him Tuesday that the system needs redesigned, but that comes as little comfort.
The DOH conceded as much in 2008, when it was installed as a “temporary fix.” That’s what DOH maintenance assistant Ray Urse told The Dominion Post at the time. Otherwise, he said, clogging would eventually become an ongoing issue.
As for Tuesday’s work, Phillips did eventually grant DOH personnel access to her property in order to get things flowing again. She explained her frustrations are not with any of those individuals.
According to Dailey, he’s exploring legal action over impacts to his properties and expenses incurred fighting the red water over the last 14 years.
“The sad truth is this problem is as simple as flushing a pipe. You put it on a schedule and you come out here and flush it out. But they will not do it, no matter how it impacts the residents out here. No matter how much I complain. No matter if the whole road is a sheet of ice,” Dailey said. “But they sure do care about it today. Now it’s an emergency.”
Jennifer Dooley, with the West Virginia Department of Transportation, said both the DOH and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection are working to address the current and underlying issues in the Richard area.
She explained the WVDEP is in the early stages of designing a project expected to address acid mine drainage by capturing mine water from the former mine complex and acid mine drainage from the inner workings of the mine and pumping it to the Richard Mine Treatment Plant currently being constructed.
