×

Moundsville Facing Likely 19% Sewer Rate Increase in 2026

photo by: Emma Delk

Moundsville council members watch a presentation about an upcoming sewer improvement project during a recent city council meeting. Seated, from left, are Vice Mayor David Wood, Councilman Randy Chamberlain, Councilwoman Judy Hunt and City Attorney Thomas White.

Moundsville City Council unanimously voted to direct City Attorney Thomas White to draft an ordinance increasing sewer rates to fund the Moundsville Sanitary Board’s upcoming improvement project.

The project will result in a 19% rate increase for Moundsville residents, projected to take effect in the winter of 2026. The average bill for residential customers with 4,000 gallons per month is projected to increase from $32.38 to $38.41 monthly, or approximately $73 more annually.

With the council’s approval for White to draft the ordinance for the rate increase, the ordinance will now have three readings at council meetings. After the third reading, a public hearing will be held regarding the ordinance and proposed rate increase.

Council members were first informed of the project during the Sept. 10 city council subcommittees meeting. At the Dec. 17 council meeting, Brock Castilow, Moundsville Sanitary & Stormwater Department superintendent, and Tim Minor, Moundsville Sanitary & Stormwater Department assistant superintendent, informed council members of the specifics of the CSO-elimination aspect of the project.

The project will eliminate combined sewer overflows in the city and is part of the city’s long-term control plan to remove inflow and infiltration from the city’s water collection system.

The total $4.2 million sanitary project, including the overflow reduction, will begin in the spring of 2025.

Overflows occur when runoff water exceeds a water system’s capacity, resulting in untreated stormwater and wastewater flowing into nearby bodies of water.

Castilow said the city averages five to six overflow events monthly, which means “a lot” of diluted wastewater is entering bodies of water in the city. Due to the risk of pollution from overflows, per the direction of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the sanitary department is working to eliminate overflows in the city.

The city has four overflow areas, and the project aims to eliminate two.

“None of us, our children or our grandchildren, want to see our creeks with potential pollutants from CSOs,” Castilow said. “One of these steps to remove these CSOs is preventing inflow and infiltration, and that’s laid out in our long-term control plan.”

Minior said the project would target an overflow at the end of Short Poplar Avenue and another CSO in Maxwell Acres.

“I don’t see us eliminating all four, but these two (Short Poplar Avenue and Maxwell Acres) overflow regularly, and we’d like to see them decrease,” Castilow said.

The projected rate increase will begin once the project has reached substantial completion, which Castilow estimated will occur Feb. 2026. Though the project will increase rates by 19%, Castilow noted their rates will still be lower than “two-thirds of the state.”

Castilow said the long-term plan will take “years” to complete, with obstacles discovered during the project having the potential to “change the whole way of work.” He noted that with every overflow eliminated, it takes longer to eliminate the next one because a “burden is placed somewhere else on the water system.”

“Next year, something could change, and that might add three years to the project,” Castilow said. “We might get lucky, and the project could be reduced by a year.”

Council member Randy Chamberlain stressed the importance of informing the public about why the rate increase is “necessary.” He asked the sanitary board to create a flyer that could be posted on social media and mailed to residents so they could understand the “necessity and need for the project.”

Castilow said the board would work to update the public on the project, including posting new bulletins informing residents what sewage treatment is and what CSOs are.

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today