Morrisey partners with WVU, Marshall to help communities secure water infrastructure grants
Trending
CHARLESTON - Gov. Patrick Morrisey has focused his attention on water infrastructure issues in southern West Virginia, but a new partnership with the state's two major universities is intended to help communities all over with obtaining state and federal grant funding for aging water systems.
Morrisey announced Wednesday that the state will partner with West Virginia University and Marshall University and the state's 11 planning and regional development councils to provide technical and grant-writing assistance to cities, counties and public service districts to pull down state and federal water infrastructure funding.
"Marshall, WVU, and our 11 Regional Planning and Development Councils are going to bring their expertise to bear for communities that need it most," Morrisey said in a statement Wednesday. "They will help small water systems compete for funding, navigate complicated requirements, and get projects moving. At the same time, we're going to cut through red tape when projects get stuck and make sure West Virginians can see the results."
"With our state and local partners, WVU will support efforts to find clean water solutions in areas of most need," said Travis Mollohan, vice president of government relations and strategic affairs at WVU. "We appreciate the Governor and his team taking steps to invest in the partnerships and strategies that can improve and modernize water systems across the state."
"This governor has really taken the leadership, and we appreciate that," said Tony Stroud, chief legal officer and vice president for strategic initiatives and corporate relations at Marshall, during a press conference with Morrisey in Beckley Wednesday. "All of this ... is the foundation we need to build upon to make West Virginia that place where people want to come."
The West Virginia Grant Resource Centers, a partnership launched in 2023 between WVU and Marshall, serve all 55 counties, with 18 counties given preference due to being categorized by the federal Appalachian Regional Commission as distressed. The centers provide technical assistance for economic development projects. In 2025, the centers celebrated securing more than $50 million for government and nonprofit projects.
"We appreciate Gov. Morrisey's leadership and are ready to work alongside local and regional experts to help communities compete for these investments," said Sara Payne Scarbro, associate vice president for government relations at Marshall University and principal investigator for the West Virginia Grant Resource Centers. "Our role is to support the experts already doing this important work in their communities. By expanding the state's collective project development capacity and pooling Marshall's experts, we can help turn local priorities into competitive projects and bring more investment to West Virginia."
"The Grant Centers expand local capacity and increase West Virginia's competitiveness for discretionary funding by helping communities submit stronger, more strategic applications," said Liz Vitullo, assistant vice president for economic innovation at WVU and co-founder of the West Virginia Grant Resource Centers. "The Grant Centers will help map out state and federal funding, support grant writing, offer training sessions, and develop strategic and attractive grant applications. The Centers will hire a dedicated grant writer to support these efforts."
According to a press release Thursday, WVU will offer additional resources to local governments and private water systems. These include the Cyber-Resilience Resource Center at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics to help water systems defend themselves against potential cyber-attacks.
WVU's Appalachian Community Technical Assistance and Training program, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Kentucky and University of Tennessee-Knoxville, already provides free technical assistance and training to local governments on operating their rural water systems. WVU's West Virginia Water Research Institute will also provide access to its team, which works to improve water quality in the state.
During his press event in Beckley Wednesday, Morrisey rolled out his "Clean, Clear Water" plan, announcing an additional $145 million in state funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the state. The source of the additional dollars was unclear, but Morrisey said the goal was to use the funds with local and federal dollars to pull down $1 billion in water infrastructure funding.
"Part of what we’ve done is we’ve tried to identify all the different buckets (from) agencies that have the ability to spend money on clean water. And we’ve tried to do this in a very organized way," Morrisey said Wednesday. "This is new money. ... This is very significant as an investment for the State of West Virginia, and we’re going to keep doing more. We’re not done yet."
Morrisey claimed that during the first nearly 20 months of his four-year term, the state has directed more than $174 million for water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the form of grants and low-interest loans. As of the end of July, state contributions have already helped advance more than $552 million in total water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
According to ARC, approximately 50% of West Virginia's water systems are categorized as small, serving 22% of the state's population. Approximately 79% of West Virginians are served by community water systems, defined as municipal water systems that treat and distribute water. ARC estimates West Virginia will need more than $6.5 billion to address drinking water and wastewater issues, with West Virginia and Virginia having the highest per capita needs at more than $5,000 per person.
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.