NEWS9 Special Assignment: Steubenville, Wintersville unite to tackle water crisis

Описание: It's a nightmare that has plagued communities throughout the Ohio Valley, even within the last year.

Aging infrastructure, wet weather, and cold temperatures have meant water line breaks, boil orders, and even a lack of water.

It's not only an inconvenience for residents, but fixes are also expensive for the municipalities.

“We have 20-inch lines in Steubenville, 12-inch lines in Steubenville, we had 12-inch line breaks last year. A 12-inch cupelling when you replace pipe is roughly about $2,400 and you need two to do that, so it gets pretty expensive. Not only are the components expensive, the materials you use, gravel, it's expensive,” Steubenville Water Superintendent James Jenkins said.

Two Jefferson County communities are working together to make sure residents won't see water loss in the future.

The answer? Well, it's a small, gray, easy to overlook building on Sunset Boulevard.

That building housed a pump station that hasn't seen action in decades, but Wintersville Mayor Mike Petrella had a thought.

What if that building could make sure people in both Wintersville and parts of Steubenville would always have water?

“Mayor Petrella came in before I got here, he suggested, ‘I wonder if we could rehab that?’ So, Steubenville would give us water, but we wanted to do it to where we could reciprocate and give them water. So, we're kind of like the middle guy between the county and Steubenville, as they're updating their infrastructure and their water,” Wintersville Village Administrator Jesse Kosegi said.

Originally, the project was expected to cost around $650,000, with a plan to have Steubenville and Wintersville split the cost and get reimbursed.

After the plan was put together and quoted, the cost increased by $236,000.

“So, with QuickSell Engineering, they looked at ARC and GOA funding, which is Appalachian Regional Commission and Governor's Office of Appalachia funding, with OMEGA, they decided to fund it. So, this project is going to $886,000, and it's going to be funded totally,” Kosegi said.

“We're doing whatever we can to help out, but Wintersville has the lead, and they got the grants to fully find the entire project,” Jenkins said.

So how exactly will it work?

“If there's an issue where Jefferson County cannot get Wintersville water, they would be able to, in an emergency situation, turn those pumps on and pull water from Steubenville to Wintersville,” Jenkins said. “That pump station is connected to Steubenville’s West End system. In an event where we had an issue with both our plant and the new pump station, and we couldn't get water to the West End, we could open it up and bring water back to Steubenville from Wintersville, from Jefferson County through Wintersville.”

FULL STORY: https://wtov9.com/news/local/news9-sp...
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