WYOMING COUNTY, W.Va. (WOAY) – As residents along southern West Virginia are forced to deal with contaminated well water, smelly creeks, and sickness, the county commission says it has done its best for the people of Wyoming County, but the power is out of their hands.
Last week, Governor Patrick Morrisey told WOAY News that when it comes to the Wyoming County water crisis, the next step has to come from local government.
“We’ve been very aggressive trying to look for ways to be helpful,” Morrisey said. “But that’s with the local water districts, and so we’re always happy to engage. I think it’s important, and we would ask the county commission to work, develop a plan.”
I sat down with Wyoming County Commission President Jason Mullins to do exactly that: figure out where the plan stands and what is holding it up.
Mullins said the county has already submitted more water projects than any other county in the state, with over a dozen proposals waiting on funding. These projects span the county and would make clean water accessible for families that currently survive off bottled water.
“We’re grateful to the state for all the help it’s currently been giving to Wyoming County for our water projects,” Mullins said. “We do have quite a few requests going on right now. We need help to get these water projects going and get them completed. We have people in Wyoming County who desperately need help.”
While those requests sit in limbo, families continue to live with water that is discolored, foul-smelling, or entirely unsafe. Some wells run orange or black. Many wells contain bacteria and methane, and in one case, the Wyoming County Health Department told a resident not to use his water at all, not for drinking, cooking, or bathing.
“You think about every time that your child goes to take a shower or a bath before school, you have to look at the water to see if it’s clean today? Is it safe?” Mullins said. “We have to make these changes. We have to do these upgrades. We have to do that for the people of Wyoming County.”
Mullins emphasized that the county isn’t just focused on long-term planning. In conversations with the state, he says he has also asked for help with short-term relief, including bottled water programs for families in the hardest-hit areas.
“We need to be looking at short-term support. We’ve asked the state to help us with that,” he said.
From Mullins’ perspective, the commission has done what it can with the resources it has. Now, he says, it’s time for the state to act.
“We’d like the state to take a double look at any of these water projects that we currently have going on in Wyoming County. Anything that can possibly be done funding-wise. We need the state to prioritize and make sure they realize we have people here that are truly suffering. We need all the help we can to get the projects we have started going. And that’s going to be with funding—federal and state.”
Mullins said some areas are already beyond the point of waiting.
“We have areas that absolutely have to have help now that they can’t go any longer, that we need to be digging ditches tomorrow,” he said. “We need to put water lines in the ground, and we need to upgrade these plants.”
Mullins also cited the importance of clean water in the booming areas that surround the Hatfield-McCoy trails.
“We have so many wonderful areas that were typically very rural, that now find themselves bombarded with traffic from all over the country. People riding the Hatfield McCoy trails are coming in, visiting the beautiful parts of the county that are rural,” Mullins said. “We hope that the lawmakers understand that these water projects are so important to be able to get economic development throughout the county, especially those more rural parts.”
Two weeks ago, Governor Morrisey promoted health and wellness during his Mountaineer Mile walking initiative in Nicholas County. At that same event, I asked about the water crisis, and he said the local commission needed to lead the response.
Now, the commission says it has led, and it is waiting for the state to respond.
DEP Testing Returns to Wyoming County
While county leaders wait for project funding, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) quietly returned to Wyoming County this week to conduct freshwater testing.
The sampling was part of a “split sample” effort, where both the DEP and an independent source, Duane Hibbs, collected samples from the same locations at the same time. The goal is to compare lab results and verify consistency across sources.
Hibbs brought sealed bottles, proper documentation, and a cooler filled with ice to preserve sample integrity.
DEP staff brought their own collection equipment, but their cooler appeared to lack ice during testing, raising concerns about whether proper chain-of-custody protocols were followed.
The DEP has previously said the water in the area meets permitting standards. But their return to the field, without any new public advisory, has left residents wondering why fresh testing is needed when the state has previously said all discharges meet permitting standards.
It remains to be seen what the lab results will show, but until then, families continue to wait for water they can trust, and for action they can see.
The next court hearing on the water contamination case is scheduled for June 9 at the Wyoming County Courthouse in Pineville.
