Charleston, WV- West Virginia lawmakers are working on a bipartisan bill that would tap into state rainy-day funds to help improve local water infrastructure and drinking-water quality.
In 2024, the state had the highest percentage of Safe Drinking Water Act violations in the nation, according to a Gazette-Mail analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data. The Coalfield Clean Water Act would provide a one-time $250 million investment to municipalities for water treatment maintenance and upgrades.
“That’s a small price to pay for the economic and public health impacts associated with safe drinking water, said the Rev. Caitlin Ware, a pastor at United Methodist Church in Tucker County.
“If we cannot get safe drinking water into communities, you’re losing fire services, you’re losing businesses, you’re losing residents,” she said. “You don’t have economic development if you don’t have safe drinking water.”
According to the advocacy group West Virginia Rivers, over the past few years, more than 2,000 cases of bottled water have been distributed to southern coalfield households. Many residents drive up to 20 minutes to collect spring water, and continue to report tap water appearing orange or black in color.
Population decline has left many communities in the Mountain State grappling with how to pay for public infrastructure without a tax base. Ware noted that the rainy-day cash would go specifically toward southern coalfield water projects, divided among those counties.
“We know that the state’s rainy-day fund has a significant amount of money in it that could go towards emergencies,” she said. “In the case of acts of God or natural disasters, that would be a permissible use of that fund.”
According to a 2025 report from move.org, West Virginia residents have the highest average monthly water bill in the country at $121 per month, far surpassing the national average of $49.
