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“ The families in Prenter go without what we take for granted every day— clean water.”
BRITTANY FURBEE
ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS WVU CHAPTER
West Virginia’ s Rural Water Crisis
An hour outside of West Virginia’ s state capitol exists a town that has been living without a maintained water supply for more than 10 years.
Prenter, located in Boone County, was once a booming coal community with more than 150 thriving residents. Today, the town’ s population has dwindled to just 60 people who deal with the daily struggle of not having clean water. A group of students from West Virginia University’ s( WVU) chapter of Engineers Without Borders( EWB) traveled to the tiny town over spring break in an attempt to provide relief to its residents.
Abandoned by Industry
The water system in Prenter was established by what is now known as Honey Island Coal with the intention of serving the town’ s mining complex as well as the residents within the community. When the coal company left the area in 2007 and eventually filed for bankruptcy, the abandoned water system quickly fell into disarray. Residents have been under a continuous boil-water advisory order since December 5, 2007, and the water system has been unmaintained since.
“ The citizens of the community have tried the best they can to at least keep the water flowing but have faced many obstacles,” says J. D. Douglas, district engineering supervisor with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources( DHHR).“ There is no formal city government in this area to protect the water system, so vandals have broken into the equipment rooms to steal copper and have destroyed the controls.”
According to Douglas, the untreated water, which is pumped through an old natural gas well, has not met disinfection requirements for bacteria
ExEdge
Engineers Without Borders has undertaken communitydriven projects in 42 countries with its more than 16,000 members.
Source: www. ewb-usa. orgfarmwv. org
and virus removal for several years and is heavily laden with hydrogen sulfide, rendering it unsafe for consumption.
“ The families in Prenter go without what we take for granted every day— clean water,” says Denna Davari, an industrial
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