Residents in the town of Gary, in McDowell County, have been without running water for a week after a pump broke at the town’s water department last Tuesday.
A new pump has been ordered and should be installed by the end of the week, said Lawrence Barber, former mayor and current city recorder in Gary.
“Right now, we’re still in a standstill,” Barber said. “There’s a lot of people who are panicking, and I understand that, but we’re trying to keep everyone calm, calm the rumors and make sure we’re getting help where it needs to go.”
For the past seven days, the roughly 440 families who rely on Gary’s water system have been living on water distributions organized by area churches and other volunteers. The city of Welch provided a water tanker for flushing toilets and needs other than drinking.
The West Virginia National Guard, following a request made to the Governor’s Office by Delegate Ed Evans, D-McDowell, brought 400 gallons of water to the city, but it’s still not enough, Barber said
“We’re grateful, but we’re down to just 100 gallons left. We’ve got 800, 900 people here we’re providing for, and that just isn’t going to cut it,” Barber said. “We’ve gotten a lot of help from former residents, people in North Carolina that used to live here have hauled tons of water up. I think it’s more than the state has done.”
All of this is happening in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while water issues are not new for Gary residents — or others in McDowell County — the current circumstances mean more could be at stake.
“I’m working every day; I’m constantly in contact with other people, and I can’t come home and even wash my hands, much less jump in the shower,” said Grayson Pendry, who has lived in Gary for about seven years. “It’s dangerous. It’s not right.”
Pendry has four children, ages 6, 7, 9 and 12. Since the water has been out, they’ve been staying with grandparents in War and Welch, Pendry said.
“My children are my main concern and, luckily, I could get them out of here, but not everyone has that option,” Pendry said. “We’ve got a lot of older folks up here. Some can’t leave their homes, and especially right now [with a pandemic]. I worry most about them and the children.”
A nursing home in Gary houses about 100 elderly residents, Barber said. They’re out of water, too, and while bottled water has been bused up to the facility, local leaders are facing a shortage of sanitizing wipes and other supplies to ensure those living there are as protected as possible from COVID-19.
Outside the nursing home, a majority of Gary’s residents are over the age of 60, meaning they’re especially vulnerable to COVID-19. Without water, Barber said, there is no way for people to follow sanitation guidelines, like regularly washing hands, that are meant to lessen their risk of contracting the virus.
“That is a real concern for folks, and they’re right to be concerned,” Barber said.
Water service issues are not a new phenomenon in Gary. The water and sewage systems were installed more than 50 years ago, before Gary was a town and when U.S. Steel Corp. owned all the land and property in the region.
“They ran the water, picked up the trash, painted the houses — anything you needed was done by U.S. Steel,” Evans said. “That was the case for a long, long time.”
Then, in the 1960s, coal production throughout the region slowed. Coal companies large and small filed for bankruptcy. In 1970, U.S. Steel joined them, taking with it the skilled workers and resources needed to continue servicing those it left behind.
For the past 20 or so years, challenges with the water and sewage systems in Gary have only grown, Barber said.
The Pendrys have experienced them firsthand since they moved to the town seven years ago. Their sewage system regularly overflows, sometimes into the yard around their house. Their neighbor, Tina Coleman, had her basement flooded with raw sewage just a few years ago.
The water, Pendry said, is no better — even when it is running. It smells like raw sewage, he said, and usually runs out the faucet in different shades of brown.
“If you fill up the bathtub, you’ve got to leave the room for the smell to clear,” Pendry said. “Who wants to bathe in that, in something that smells like — sometimes even looks like — sewage? We can’t drink it, can’t put our kids in it, and we still pay for it.”
Gary’s water system is made up of corroded steel pipes, Barber said. The sewage system — which is slowly crumbling beneath the town — is made of terracotta pipes. Neither are cheap to upgrade or replace.
“We need help, this whole region needs help. It’s not just McDowell County, it’s the state of West Virginia, it’s everywhere, every region here,” Evans said. “We don’t have the money, these small towns don’t have the money, so we need to start finding more money elsewhere.”
A project was approved years ago by the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council to replace Gary’s entire sewage system, but it has to yet to start, as funding for such projects in the state is sparse. Most projects are paid for by small water systems or municipalities taking out large loans to pay for necessary infrastructure improvements.
But interest on those loans can be hard to pay off as customer bases shrink, leading to less money coming in from bills, which, for most small water systems in the state, are the only income source.
Gary runs on an annual budget of about $800,000, Barber said. Average cash on hand for the city is about $120,000. The new water pump for the system — an emergency repair — cost $30,000 and was covered by money from the McDowell County Commission and the Economic Development Authority.
If the town had to pay for that, Barber said, they’d be at a loss for the rest of the year.
“That’s a quarter of our budget right now, and it’s an emergency, but what happens when there’s another emergency?” Barber said.
Evans said the state needs to step up and find a way to help towns like Gary — and neighboring Keystone, Pageton, Anawalt and others — improve their water and sewage infrastructures for the good of all West Virginians. Year after year, he said, he watches as his fellow legislators and the governor fail to propose and pass legislation to better the state’s water infrastructure.
Year after year, too, the price of water infrastructure improvements also rises.
“We can’t continue with this, it’s not right and it’s not safe,” Evans said. “We need to change for the better.”
For the past week, politicians from across the state who are currently running for election have been coming to Gary, dropping off water and meeting with residents. Barber said he appreciates the help — everyone in Gary does — but he urged people to remember that this is not a one-time thing.
“Where are they the other 364 days of the year? We always need help down here, and rarely do people bring it. We provided enough coal to keep West Virginia — the United States — powered, but when we need it, we only get help if it benefits the person bringing it,” Barber said. “It’s not fair. We deserve better, we need better.”
