BY KYLE LOVERN
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

NAUGATUCK, W.Va. — More than 4,500 households in Mingo County have been very frustrated the last few months because of constant water outages.

The Mingo County Public Service District (PSD) is responsible for clean water, but leaks in lines and problems with the intake at the water plant located at Naugatuck have caused many issues.

Chris Varney was recently named as the new director of the PSD. He takes over for J. B. Heflin.

Varney plans to lead the PSD in a new direction to ensure residents have clean drinking water. He knows he has his work cut out for him but is up to the challenge.

“It is a precarious road at the moment to try to navigate. There are a lot of fires to put out at the moment. But the sooner I get these squared away, the quicker I can begin to help bring the system to a higher standard and redefine how we are seen,” Varney said. “On day one, when I started here – we had a catastrophic main line break and that’s eaten up a lot of my attention and time that I had hoped to devote a little more to being able to fully immerse myself in some of the other issues and problems we had.

“But our service is a priority. I know we have had several back-to-back issues in the same areas in the past few months. This paints a bad picture, and I understand the frustration and aggravation of our customers,” Varney added. “It makes them question our reliability to provide quality service to them. I worked at the PSD previously for almost 10 years, so I kind of knew the condition of some of the things already, but my firsthand knowledge of stuff was several years old now.

“However, I do feel confident about the situation, and truthfully, if I thought it was too far gone, I wouldn’t have accepted the position. I left a very good and stable job for this challenge. And I do believe I’m well qualified and capable to meet the needs to bring us back up. I have almost 16 years in the industry – with two-thirds of it being in this district. I hold a class IV water operator’s license, the highest in the state, and have experience with pretty much every area of the operations side of the work. On the flip side of that, I also hold an MBA and have roughly six years in business, specifically in finance and insurance, two of which I managed and was the vice president of sales for an agency,” Varney stressed.

He hopes customers will be patient as he and his staff work to alleviate the problems the PSD has had over the past few months. Some of the main lines were buried deep under the road construction back in the 1990s and not relocated. This is causing a lot of issues.

“Currently, I have customers with limited service or some that have been completely out of it since this happened. We’ve redirected how the water is distributed temporarily to bring water to as many customers as we get back into service. But due to the elevations of the other tanks we have to use, unfortunately, there are some that haven’t had water at all. Our biggest delay in bringing service back is the location of the waterlines in Nolan and around Dans Branch,” said Varney. “This was an older existing system that was added onto as the PSD absorbed existing service areas and expanded. We don’t have updated maps from the old Nolan PSD showing how the lines were relocated after US 119 was built.

“Unfortunately, in our experience from working on other main breaks in those areas, the main lines were not raised when they filled in and raised the ground for the construction of US119 (Corridor G). For instance, I was on a main line break just up the road near the old toll bridge some years ago, and the main was about 27 feet underground if I remember correctly. When it should be raised up to roughly 4 feet deep. At those depths, it is almost impossible to locate lines with any efficiency, if at all, or in a safe manner. I’m currently working on rerouting the mainline permanently and getting rid of the majority of the old works we are having issues with,” Varney said to inform the public on one of the tough situations he has to deal with.

“I’m working with some contractors and have a plan to completely redo the main from the tank to Alley Branch. This should greatly reduce the chances of a situation like this occurring again. But as with everything, it’s going to be very expensive.

“Also, as I believe most are aware, we are in the middle of a general investigation from the Public Service Commission. This sounds a lot more ominous than it is, but they are looking into all areas of the District to see if it can be made sustainable and is salvageable.

“Other than those two huge things, there are several smaller issues. Manpower is one and I really need to hire some people. But I want to do it right and take the time for proper interviews and evaluations. Outside of the money strains, I really just ask for some time and grace. I just assumed this role, and nothing will happen overnight. But I do believe that soon people will begin to see that we are changing for the better,” Varney concluded.

The Mingo County PSD has three new board members. They are Keith Hess, chairperson; Jim Kennedy, treasurer; and Noah Bailey.

Mingo County PSD customers will be seeing a rate increase in the coming weeks, according to Varney. The Mingo County Commission approved this increase back in 2021. However, it is just now taking effect. The PSD needs the funding to help alleviate many issues.

The County Commission has recently given the PSD some funds and they also received a critical needs grant. Varney and others are hoping to get some grants and more money from the state.

Customers who have dealt with water outages hope that Varney and the new PSD board’s efforts will turn things around sooner rather than later.