Kanawha County, W.Va. — West Virginia has more than 110 public owned water districts throughout the state, according to the latest data from the West Virginia Public Service Commission. Some of these facilities handle as little as 17 customers in its district.
Throughout the past year, Mingo County Public Service District customers said they’ve continued facing issues surrounding water availability or discolored water.
Last year, homeowners went to a county commission meeting to voice concerns about water reliability. Now in 2025, some customers still experience water outages, sometimes for days. They shared their stories at Wharncliff Volunteer Fire Department.
“I’ve had to call off of work to be here because they’re overwhelmed with calls and trying to distribute water and everything else. They need help with accountability and all that,” Wharncliff Volunteer Fire chief Joshua Vance said.
On January 23, the Public Service Commission opened an investigation into Mingo County PSD because of reported prolonged water outages and to: “…determine whether the district is unable to adequately service its customers, has been effectively abandoned by its management.”
“These are nagging problems that are going on year after year after year. We need to solve these problems-” Sen. Mike Stuart – (R) Kanawha said.
The commission was also investigating whether or not the district should be taken over. By January 29, the commission moved up a hearing date for Mingo County PSD to April 14, citing: “a concern for public health.”
According to a PSC spokesperson, if a utility was declared as “failing,” this might allow the system to be acquired by another larger utility.
Lincoln County resident Marietta Hale has lived in the area for around two decades. She’s one of several publicly speaking out against Lincoln PSD.
“It’s time that we speak up and that we get something done. Something has to be resolved around here. People can’t live without water.” Lincoln County PSD customer Marietta Hale said.
At a recent PSD board meeting, community members packed into the small office building demanding answers about why their water supply has been unreliable or non-existent during the month of January.
This is not the first time Lincoln PSD has been in the hot seat. According to documents obtained by Eyewitness News from the West Virginia Public Service Commission, in early 2021, PSC staff opened an investigation into whether Lincoln PSD was a distressed or failing utility. By the fall of that year, the commission concluded that Lincoln PSD was distressed but not failing and recommended the utility board prepare a “corrective action plan.”
However, by 2023 Lincoln PSD was ordered before the commission for “blatant disregard” of PSC orders. Lincoln PSD was given the opportunity to file a plan to fix itself…the service commission said the utility failed to do so. By early 2025, customers remained without water for up to a week in isolated areas. This issue repeated again the following week.
“For most people that live in the area haven’t trusted drinking the water for several years.” Lincoln County PSD customer Wendy Beaver said.
Wendy Beaver found herself as the admin of a community social media group that discussed ongoing water issues within the Lincoln County area.
When the county commission delivered cases of bottled water to Alum Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Beaver chose to help guard and hand out water, while updating her more than 1,400 followers on the situation.
“We’re not talking that we’re back in the 1980’s. We now have emails, we have Facebook pages. Most people have cell phones. There some be enough technology out there that they can push notifications on things,” Beaver said.
Although posts were not affiliated with the actual Lincoln PSD, customers continually said it was one of their only sources for information.
According to a West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Source Water Protection Map, data aggregated from several agencies showed Lincoln and Mingo County PSD’s had at least some portion of its district under a zone of ‘critical concern for potential significant contamination.’
One solution for Lincoln PSD customer was to join West Virginia American Water. Company representatives joined Lincoln County commissioners at a meeting on January 30th and presented a proposal to buy Lincoln PSD for $12.9 million and add $21 million in improvements to the system over the first five years of operation.
“If there’s an opportunity for us to fix those issues, we want to do everything we can to help and I think we’ve had a lot of good decisions with the county commission,” West Virginia American Water Jake Glance said.
Most Lincoln County customers who spoke to the county commission during a public hearing on the dissolution of Lincoln PSD and potential sale of assets to West Virginia American Water were in favor of the decision. Though some customers said they wondered why it took this long.
The Lincoln County Commission will met on March 6 to vote on the dissolution of Lincoln PSD. The Fayette County Commission will holding two public meetings on February 12 and 19 for the acquisition proposal of three PSD’s. Mingo County PSD has not responded to our repeated requests for comment. We also reached out to Governor Morrisey’s office and will update this story when we hear back.