MORGANTOWN — After a three-month process that included discussion, public comment and soil testing, the Morgantown Utility Board has selected the shortest route — Route 3 — as its recommendation for a raw water pipeline through White Park.
MUB’s board of directors voted unanimously in support of Route 3 on Monday.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball said he plans to brief Morgantown City Council on the utility’s recommendation at the upcoming committee of the whole meeting. MUB will ultimately need a license agreement from the city to proceed.
Route 3 is one of two — along with Route 8 — to emerge as likely candidates after MUB’s original route along the existing park trail was abandoned in late April, due to public backlash over potential impacts to the park and its mature trees.
Routes 3 and 8 primarily share an identical path and run through White Park on the Green Bag Road side, south of the existing Cobun Creek Reservoir.
The 30-inch gravity fed pipeline is needed to bring water from MUB’s new George B. Flegal Dam and Reservoir, which is currently under construction, to the utility’s treatment facility, along Don Knotts Boulevard.
MUB has said Route 3 will add $810,000 to the $2.1 million cost of the pipeline, though MUB Assistant Manager and Engineer Doug Smith said the path may be tweaked in an effort to run it as far south of the existing reservoir as possible. He said discussions are underway with private property owners to that end.
Once work begins later this fall, a 40-foot swath will be cleared along the route in order to give equipment clearance to dig an eight-foot trench.
Ball explained the utility will plant two trees — both in the park and elsewhere — for every tree it removes. Estimates shared Monday put that number at 270 trees.
Further, the utility intends to leave behind a new walking trail along the route as well as a walking bridge connecting the northern and southern sections of the park.
JoNell Strough, chair of the Mon Valley Green Space Coalition, has been outspoken in sharing the coalition’s desire to see MUB route the line around the park, something MUB has said it cannot do without the additional cost of a pumping station and still meet the desired flow rates.
Strough was one of a few speakers advocating for a route along Mississippi Street, Route 5. She said MUB could build it without a pumping station and still achieve adequate flow, even if it’s not the utility’s ideal scenario.
“The capacity, even without the pumping station exceeds, exceeds, our current demand for a secondary backup emergency supply,” Strough said, explaining “that seems like enough” when taken with an unmolested White Park, and noting the capacity MUB claims it needs is more in line with a “doomsday scenario.”
Ball said that’s not the case, explaining such projects are built to serve the community for 50 years or more.
“Any suggestion that this should be cut back, scaled down or reduced — pick your verb — to a shorter time, thinking ‘Well, things are ok now. Let’s just take care of today’s demands and worry about tomorrow’s demands tomorrow,’ That is foolish and careless,” Ball said. “The projects we’re discussing require 50 years of foresight, and that’s what we’re doing.”
As for contaminants in the park’s soil, Smith explained that the compounds identified by Triad Engineering during recent testing identified common, naturally occurring compounds that MUB is equipped to deal with.
Further, Smith said, MUB is experienced in the type of soil management efforts proposed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection when it recently gave MUB the green light to proceed with this project.
MUB will basically need to remove the soil with detectable amounts of said compounds for proper disposal. According to Smith, this work will be done under the supervision of an arborist and a representative from Triad.
White Park was part of a 700-acre crude oil tank farm operated by Standard Oil and its subsidiaries from the late 1800s to the early 1960s.
Ball said that ultimately, if the soil posed a threat to the water, the whole question would be moot.
“We’re not reckless. We’re not careless with water quality. Quite the contrary. This whole discussion, this whole $50 million project is happening because we’re hypercautious about water quality,” Ball said. “We would be the last ones to propose some reckless plan to carelessly expose our customers and the public to water contamination.”
All the route options considered, along with additional information, including Triad’s soil report, can be found at mub.org/waterline.
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