Keystone, WV - Environmental Justice Case Study

A coal miner’s daughter, Betty Younger grew up in McDowell County and remembers a very different community during the 1950’s. Like so many coal-dependent communities, McDowell has suffered the boom and bust of the industry, and the sharp population decline that comes with it. In the 1950’s there were more than 100,000 people. Today less 20,000 remain in the county.

The point of focus is the drinking water access crisis that is occurring in Keystone, WV, and has been affecting them since 2013 when the boil water advisory began. The fundamental issue is that the town has a failing water infrastructure, and as of 2020 the town has still been without consistent water flow & quality.

The residents on 'good day' have water at such a low pressure that the water must be boiled to be able to use it safely. On bad days, there is no water at all. Keystone’s current water system has served the town since the early 20th century and it was designed by a then local coal company to supply water to its employees' housing.

Today the Keystone Municipal Water utility operates without a filtration system implemented in its water supply facility. Due to this, residents are using an average of five gallons of water a day when the average person uses between 80-100 gallons of water a day.

• Residents of Keystone

• WV Government/Legislator

• West Virginia Rural Water Association

• West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources & Department of Highways

• Keystone Municipal Water utility

• United States Water Alliance

• EPA

• Appalachia Mountain Flows

The conflict that is rising in this small town and alongside other surrounding areas is that not only are they being impacted by the drinking water issue but also that there has been significant inaction of funding/finding/developing a solution to fix it.

There are days that residents go without water and have resulted in the population becoming uneasy over the duration which has continued on with no aid.

This issue has become part of the resident's everyday life and they continue to go on each day in thinking if they will have water or not alongside if it is running from the faucet, what color it would be or is it even safe to drink even after boiling it.

There is no filtration system present in Keystone's water system as the town is still dependent upon the same water system the then local coal company put in place during the early 20th century.

As of June 2019, the Keystone WV town council did not have enough money to help their residents and they do not possess the needed equipment to dig holes to fix the pipe problems themselves. To rent equipment it would cost between $200 to $400 a day which far exceed their budget. Another factor that impacts this situation is that the town's debt far exceeds the needed funds as they owe greater than $40,000 to Appalachian Power for unpaid electric bills.

West Virginia Department of Highways was asked for help but did not reply to the town's plea. However, in a turn of luck, $6.3 million in a grant from the West Virginian Government was awarded to Keystone with the purpose to fix the failed water system.

Residents were told that it would take a year to fix the town's water system and then the McDowell County Public Service District would take over the new system as facility operators. As of 2020, the town was still experiencing water problems, and until a new project was funded their problems had not been solved.

• Industrial contamination

• Naturally occurring pollutants.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s acceptance rate for fecal coliform per mL of water is 200 parts per mL. 

In Ashland, before the wetland, the organization was finding 200,000 parts per mL. (Fecal coliform is an indicator that sewage is present in water...)

• McDowell County has the shortest life expectancies in the country

• Potential for infectious disease, gastrointestinal problems

• Water spiked with heavy metals and other contaminants.

“Any contaminant you can think of pales in comparison to raw, untreated sewage,”... "Sewage contains bacteria, parasites, and viruses that can cause short-term problems like diarrhea, eye infections, respiratory infection, and long-term problems like cancer, Dementia, and Diabetes. There are growing concerns about potential illnesses or effects from exposure to pharmaceuticals and synthetic hormones introduced through sewage." - Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz, WVU

Maggie Nevi is the Project Coordinator for the Waste Water Treatment Coalition in McDowell County. The coalition’s main objective is to end the practice of straight piping:

“Right now 67 percent of the county has no form of waste water treatment whatsoever. And they do what’s called straight-piping which is exactly what it sounds like.” - Maggie Nevi

As eco-tourism is developing into a significant factor of economic prowess for the state of West Virginia, the concerns of failed water systems and water quality loom over impacted regions' tourism potential and safety. White water rafters, ATV drivers, and other outdoor enthusiasts should be concerned about the water they are exposed to.

“They pretty-much could be riding through raw sewage, depending on the area that they are in,” - Maggie Nevi

An aquatic biologist from Wheeling Jesuit University, Dr. Ben Stout, began researching water quality issues in southern West Virginia counties looking into ecological impacts of Mountaintop Removal over a decade ago. Dr. Stout was specifically at stream impairment in areas where dirt and land from the tops of ridges were pushed into valleys.

Dr. Stout points out that naturally occurring minerals and metals (like manganese) can be caused by serious concern by their own regard as contaminants that leach naturally from the now exposed/unearthed geology of the region.

While manganese's effect in water specifically hasn’t been investigated thoroughly,  a 2010 drinking water study  reported that “continued exposure to manganese at levels common in groundwater is associated with intellectual impairment in children.”

“Heavy metals don’t turn into anything else when you boil them,” Dr. Ben Stout stated. “Mercury stays mercury, and aluminum stays aluminum.”

Furthermore, Dr. Stout stated that people continuously exposed to these contaminants through various pathways such as drinking or showers become ill with a myriad of symptoms.

At the West Virginia Water Research Institute, Director Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz says 67 percent of homes in McDowell County not having a sewage treatment... is a public health crisis.

He continues on further to state that while many of the pathogens one might encounter in water can be killed off by boiling water but…

“You don’t boil water to take a shower. The kids play in the little plastic pool out back. Are you boiling all that water, too? People drink this stuff they get in contact with it, they’re washing their faces with it,” Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz said, “and that’s bad stuff!”

Dr. Ziemkiewicz mentioned that if he or any other researchers from his organization study/collect water samples in the area, that he requires inoculations for Hepatitis A and B.