The federal money that has propped up West Virginia’s water and sewer upgrades for the past four years is running out, and state officials told lawmakers so in plain terms this month. For a state with some of the nation’s most troubled small water systems, the timing could hardly be worse.
At interim legislative meetings on September 13, 2026, WV Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Harold Ward told the Joint Technology and Infrastructure Committee that West Virginia is entering its final year of support from the 2021 federal infrastructure law, and that EPA state revolving fund support is shrinking as congressionally directed spending eats into the pot.
What lawmakers heard
The Joint Technology and Infrastructure Committee opened this month’s interim meetings with back to back reports on water infrastructure and flood recovery. Ward laid out the funding picture: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which delivered a historic surge of water money to the state, is in its last year of support, and the state revolving funds that normally provide low interest loans for water and sewer projects are seeing less federal support. Mark Sarver, the newly appointed executive director of the West Virginia Water Development Authority, added that even congressionally directed funding, the earmarks that have partially replaced formula dollars, sometimes arrives late.
“We do have concerns with ongoing funding.”
Harold Ward, Secretary, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
The systems on the receiving end
The stakes are not abstract. In 2024, West Virginia had the highest percentage of public water systems with health based Safe Drinking Water Act violations in the nation, and it ranked sixth for acute health based violations. Many of the systems in the worst shape serve small communities in the coalfield counties, places where the customer base is shrinking and the pipes are oldest, and where a rate increase cannot realistically cover a multimillion dollar upgrade.
Why it matters for the rest of us
Watershed groups are not water utilities, but in West Virginia the two problems live in the same hollow. When a small system fails, straight pipes and failing infrastructure send sewage and untreated water into the same streams volunteers are working to restore. A tighter state funding picture also means more competition for every remaining grant dollar, including the programs watershed groups draw on. Groups partnering with public service districts on projects should build longer funding timelines into their plans, and now is a good moment to document local needs in writing, since the projects with paperwork ready tend to be the ones that catch whatever money does come through.
Source: WV Press Association, from the Charleston Gazette-Mail, September 15, 2026, reporting on the September 13 interim committee meetings.
