In what is becoming an all-too familiar story for southern West Virginia, yet another project that would have helped thousands in our region has once again been rejected for federal stimulus funds.
McDowell and Wyoming county officials have been working for more than three years on the proposed R.D. Bailey Regional Water Project. The regional system would have provided a clean and reliable source of drinking water to thousands in southern West Virginia, including many families who have no current source of water.
Many of these families who have to haul water to their homes, while others have to use cistern systems to catch rain water.
As originally proposed, the project would have served more than 3,000 families in McDowell County, as well as the new federal prison project in Welch. The project would have served another 1,209 families in Hanover, and 1,700 in Oceana would have benefited from the regional system. Pineville would have picked up another 1,765 customers as well.
Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, was told this week by Bobby Lewis, of the USDA Rural Development Office in Morgantown, that the USDA “ran out of money.”
“It’s the same ol’, same ol’ story for southern West Virginia,” Browning told the Register-Herald Wednesday. “And, I’m just sickened by it.”
“I think it’s a shame that this has happened. I think it’s been a terrible blow to that end of the county — to Hanover and in McDowell County,” added Mike Goode, who is the Wyoming County clerk and serves as chairman of the Wyoming County Economic Development Authority.
Browning said he plans to appeal the ruling directly to the White House.
Local officials had already secured $35 million in Abandoned Mine Land funding for the project. However, without the remaining the federal stimulus funding, the $35 million may be lost as well, according to Browning.
“The feds were the ones who told us to make this project bigger,” Browning said. “We went through all their hoops and hurdles. Now they’ve turned their backs on us. We are trying to provide basic, everyday, 21st century infrastructure here in southern West Virginia. The sin is they don’t have it now and the bigger sin is the federal government has let this happen in this day and time.”
It’s not the first time Washington has turned its back on our region. Millions in federal stimulus funds that could have developed usable segments of the Coalfields Expressway in McDowell County and the King Coal Highway in Mercer County were also rejected.
The outrage over this latest funding fumble is warranted, and Browning is correct. This project is too important to fall by the wayside. McDowell and Wyoming county officials do need to make a direct appeal to the White House.
The fact that families in our region are still being forced to live without a reliable source of water in this day and age is simply unacceptable.
Even more troubling is the fact that our shot at helping these families with federal stimulus dollars has been rejected by Washington.
Editorials
May 27, 2010
Rejected again: No stimulus dollars for water project
- Editorials
-
- Annexing Brushfork? Bluefield proposes a bold idea
- Financial stability —Squad rebounding in Bluefield, Va.
- Tourism boon: Hatfield-McCoy Trail opens
- Budget shortfall — Difficult decisions await school board
- Black eye for W.Va. — Primary vote merits need for change
- Mountain Festival — Family-oriented fun in the Bluefields
- Under attack — The Obama-led EPA strikes back
- Veterans clinic — Time for action from Washington
- Smooth transition — Spencer tapped for McDowell post
- Coalfields Expressway — A six-year commitment in Virginia
- More Editorials Headlines
