Pictured with Peni Adams are VISTA volunteer Brandon Osborne (right) and Jim Reed. A Special Assistant with the Division of Natural Resources, Reed is also serving as Clean Water Chairman for RI District 7550.

September 22, 2009

"Wastewater is a polite word for sewage," Peni Adams told Putnam Rotarians today.

In many coal camps, there is little room for adequate drainage fields, and in most communities the disposal systems installed years ago by mining companies are woefully deteriorated and inadequate by any measure. "In many places, the sewage runs directly into a creek.

"The houses are often too close together," she said, "to install septic tanks."

Adams is a certified public accountant who has been known to operate heavy equipment when the need arises. She had been a field representative for the West Virginia Secretary of State when the McDowell County Commission employed her as full-time Director of the county's Wastewater Treatment Coalition.

"Without wastewater treatment," said Adams, "you don't have economic development. You don't have healthy people, a positive quality of life, or community sustainability."

Two out of three homes in McDowell County do not have any wastewater treatment or they have a system that is failing. "So," said Adams, "it's going into the ground, or they're pumping it straight into the streams.

"When they tested the water in the area after the 2001 and 2002 floods, the contamination was worse than in New Orleans after [Hurricane] Katrina. Some of the levels [of contamination] are as high as 1,000 times the normal level."

In the 1950s, McDowell County had a population of 125,000. There are about 22,000 people in the county today. "Where you once had fifty homes, you now have ten."

Adams also noted the problems of terrain. "We have narrow hollows and steep slopes," she told the group. "A lot of people live beside a creek, which is in a flood plain. And most funding sources will not give money to put a treatment plant in a flood plain."

The Coalition began its work with a survey of the entire county by volunteers. "It's a plan for every little community in the county, whether they have individual septic systems, cluster systems, or an extension from one of the four existing treatment plants."

The Coalition set up a demonstration project in Ashland, a community of 22 homes and one business near the headwaters of the North Fork of Elkhorn Creek.

"There was strong community buy-in," said Adams.

In 2009, several groups of college students volunteered their time to dig a drain field.

Several homes in Ashland share septic systems which feed into large holding tanks. The sewage is pumped from the tanks and up a mountain into wetlands where it is "naturally" treated. After this treatment, the wastewater is released into a drain field.

The Wastewater Coalition includes representatives from all levels of government, from faith-based organizations and non-profits.

Rotary Clubs became partners in the Coalition when former RI District 7550 Governor Bill Haslam secured a matching grant (a District Simplified Grant) of up to $7,000. With support from the 28 clubs in southern West Virginia, the Rotary funding available to the Coalition could be $14,000.

But in-kind assistance is also welcome. Adams invited Rotarians to pull on their waders and help with plantings in the septic wetlands.

The next wastewater project is for Crumpler, a community of 120 homes and two churches just upstream from Ashland.

But the Coalition's greatest success to date may have taken another form: Loans have been made available throughout the county, loans at reasonable rates and which may be paid off in ten to 15 years.

"I won't live to see it," said one octogenarian who is battling cancer. "But it's good to know that something is being done."