Weirton water board's objections overruled in ongoing investigation

WEIRTON, W.Va. — The investigation into Weirton’s winter water crisis has taken another turn as the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) rejected the Weirton Area Water Board’s recent requests. In late February, the PSC initiated an investigation into the causes of the water crisis. However, documents obtained by News9 reveal that the Water Board objected to several aspects of the investigation.

In a March 31 filing, attorneys for the Water Board objected to four specific requests from the PSC. These included requests for maps of the water utility layout, customers served via resale, a drawing of the water treatment plant, and notations of the 130 line breaks that occurred from November 2024 until now. The objections were based on the grounds that “the request calls for the production of public utility plant and equipment plans and descriptions which are exempt from disclosure.” Despite this, attorneys stated that the Water Board would provide the information confidentially.

The Water Board also took issue with the PSC’s notice order for public comment. The Commission’s April 7 order stated that the investigation would examine the Water Board’s practices, procedures, and the causes of water main breaks and storage problems that led to outages and shortages. The Water Board’s attorneys argued that the phrasing was “factually inaccurate,” stating that the outages and shortages affected only 1.17% of the Water Board’s 9,300 customers, not the entire system. They requested a revised notice to reflect this.

On April 9, the Water Board filed a motion to narrow the investigation’s scope, claiming that the causes of the main breaks and the Water Board’s actions were “clear and unequivocal.” The PSC denied both the motion to revise the notice and the motion to narrow the scope, stating that “the water breaks affected customers throughout the system.”

The next step in the investigation is a public comment session scheduled for April 23 at 6 p.m. at the Weirton Millsop Community Center. The investigation continues as officials seek to uncover the events of this past winter in Weirton.