New hydrant rules are up for comment, concerns remain regarding cost to ratepayers for upgrades

Fire hydrants are a bit of a gray area when it comes to regulation in state code, which further complicates the efforts to study and maintain them. (Leann Ray | West Virginia Watch)

The West Virginia Public Service Commission last week filed newly proposed rules for the regulation and maintenance of the state’s fire hydrants following a state-wide audit and investigation into their operations.

The new rules would require water systems in the state that operate hydrants to conduct annual inspections for all fire hydrants and hold flow testing at least every five years to ensure water pressure and flow is enough to help in extinguishing a fire. They also increase reporting requirements for water utilities and could implement fines for those that fail to include information in their mandated annual reports.

The rules — which came from a task force that launched last June in response to several reports that active fire hydrants in the state did not have enough flow capacity for firefighters to use them — are out for public comment until the end of July. They will then be reviewed by the Public Service Commission for passage.

Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, participated in the Fire Hydrant Maintenance and Testing Task Force meetings and has been a proponent for updates to maintenance requirements through his work at the Legislature. He said the resulting proposed rules were “a good work product” and touched on several areas he was concerned about.

“I’m pleased with what we’ve put forward and how those discussions have gone over the past few months,” Linville said. “Ultimately, we’re trying to get to the root of the problem here. We want to have working hydrants all across the state where you see them and you know, if you need, they are capable of being used to put out a fire.”

The proposed update to maintenance and reporting requirements, which included public marking of hydrants that are not up to standards, will help alleviate community concerns by increasing oversight, Linville said.

But concerns remain about how potential increases in inspections and maintenance will be paid for.

“The only thing I’d like to see a little bit more discussion on is the billing,” Linville said. “That’s the one thing that wasn’t really discussed in this taskforce much, and there is a larger body of law and rules surrounding [rate increases] at the PSC. I’d like to see that developed a bit more.”

West Virginia is home to more than 250 water systems, most of which are public. A majority of those are considered small or medium districts, serving a couple thousand residents across small regions. Customers paying their bills provide the only source of income for many of these water districts, meaning when improvements or changes are needed, the increase in prices are often passed off to ratepayers.

Through the PSC, districts must apply to increase rates, providing an explanation for what the increased income would go to and how that would improve service to their customers. Most rate cases are approved by the PSC, though usually at a lower rate than initially applied for.

While some grants and many loans are available through the state — at the Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council and the Water Development Authority, among other sources — to help offset costs of water system maintenance and improvements, the interest on those loans can be massive for small systems and, again, become the responsibility of the ratepayers due to a lack of other income.

During the 2024 regular legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill — sponsored by Linville — requiring the PSC to create and implement the rules that are now proposed. They did not, however, include in that legislation funding to help with the testing or potential replacement of hydrants that are not up to standards. This was despite a request from PSC officials before the start of the session for money to be allocated for those purposes, citing a report stating that $70 million would be needed over the next 10 years to make all hydrants operational.

While utilities have been told that they can use some money they’ve put away in special funds only to be accessed with PSC approval for some parts of the maintenance efforts, it’s unlikely that most small districts — where infrastructure problems tend to be more widespread — will have enough stored up to cover all the costs.

In a fire hydrant task force meeting in April, members of the group confirmed that the cost of improving maintenance and oversight for fire hydrants will likely be on the backs of customers because of the lack of legislative funding.

“The [PSC] requested the Legislature to consider funding [to bring all hydrants up to date], but we didn’t get the funding. So that’s the end of that,” said Jonathan Fowler, an engineer with the PSC, at that meeting. “The cost to apply these rules will be billed into rates moving forward.”

West Virginians, on average, already pay some of the highest water utility rates in the country. As of 2019, residents paid the highest average water bill than any other state, at about $91 per a month, according to data from the National Association of Water Companies.

Those rates — with or without the added costs for hydrant upgrades — will likely increase in coming years as the state’s water infrastructure continues to age and a majority of funding for upgrades comes through burdensome, often high-interest loans instead of grants.

Dilapidated and aging water infrastructure is also a hindrance to economic development in the state in addition to presenting challenges with public safety and health. Fewer working hydrants means higher fire risk, leading to increases in insurance rates and potentially a decrease in property values. They can also — and often do — cost residents their lives.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, West Virginia’s rate of casualties from all fires is annually more than double the national average. In 2022, according to the agency, about 7.8% of emergency calls in West Virginia were for fires, compared to just 3.7% of emergency calls made nationwide.

Linville said efforts are underway to increase access to grants for both water projects and other necessary infrastructure upgrades throughout the state. The more preventative work that can be done to maintain water systems and their hydrants would potentially make the overall cost less, but it’s still costly.

“We are working more now through grants and trying to be a little more forward thinking about how to avert having to only handle these situations when they hit crisis level,” Linville said. “Even with grants, well, somebody paid for that. We’re trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. We’re trying to solve the problems and avoid them happening again in the future, and that is difficult to do when the costs are so high.”

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST

The post New hydrant rules are up for comment, concerns remain regarding cost to ratepayers for upgrades appeared first on West Virginia Watch .