by Kate Shunney
County and Town of Bath officials had a lively meeting of the minds last Wednesday about how much development growth the public water service around Berkeley Springs might be able to handle now and in the near future.
Bath elected officials sounded the alarm quite clearly that the Berkeley Springs Water Works – the town-owned water utility – has limits when it comes to supplying existing and new customers.
The Morgan County Commission is on the verge of taking the next step in advancing a water and sewer line extension down U.S. 522 south of Ridersville Cycle and the Potomac Edison building.
Funding for the extension is in place through federal grants and COVID-era economic recovery dollars, and commissioners are eager for the utility project to move forward.
The extension would take the water and wastewater utility lines nearly to the Tabor Road intersection, touching several commercial properties and residential parcels along the way. Adding public water and sewer access is seen by the county and state as a major economic development step.
Last Wednesday’s discussion during the regular monthly County Commission meeting under the agenda item of “Town of Bath Water Discussion.”
Bath Mayor Greg Schene started the conversation by saying the purpose of their talk was to “come to an agreement on the capacity of the water plant” as the line extension moved ahead.
Commissioner Sean Forney, who has spearheaded the extension project for several years, said his understanding of the water plant’s capacity was based on a preliminary engineering report that was produced for the extension line study.
That report said the Berkeley Springs Water Works is pumping over 340,000 gallons per day, with pumps working 18 hours per day.
That report, Forney said, indicated the lowest usage day had the water plant pumping 200,000 gallons per day, with a maximum pumping of 458,000 gallons per day if the plant ran pumps for 24 hours.
Bath councilwoman Mary Lynn Hickey told county officials that 20 hours per day is the maximum number of hours the plant pumps can run.
The highest output of the Berkeley Springs water plant, in April of 2024, was 450,600 gallons in a 24-hour period.
Schene told commissioners that the existing plant has a maximum pumping capacity of 500,000 gallons per day.
Water plant supervisor Rick Mayhew told commissioners that is dictated by the size of the filtering media the town can use.
Bath officials repeatedly referred to the water plant as “aged” and in need of overdue upgrades. They said the cost to do those improvements has been estimated at $7-8 million.
They said once the water works are operating at 65% of their maximum daily capacity, state utility regulators tell them they must have a second water source identified to prevent a system failure.
Berkeley Springs currently has 1.2 million gallons of storage capacity in their water towers and tanks. Their current amount in storage is estimated to be less than that – closer to 18 hours’ worth of full use by public water customers.
“The tanks are not filled to the top,” said water department secretary Breauna Farris.
Commissioners challenged the capacity and pumping numbers, saying there is a discrepancy between the gallons pumped and the number of gallons the town has billed for. They questioned if the town has significant water leaks that siphoning off capacity or had looked hard at their actual numbers.
Forney said there have been no new industrial water users since the initial water plant report was made.
“The numbers are legit. What goes into them can be unpacked later,” said Councilwoman Hickey.
Mayor Schene said one of his concerns is that no major improvements to the Berkeley Springs water plant are planned in the immediate future.
“Nothing is going to improve for five years,” he said.
Schene said whoever gets added to the extended water line will only stack more demand on top of the current operation, which sometimes gets the town close to its daily capacity.
“We’re already pressed up against that number,” said Schene. “How are we going to deal with that?”
Commissioner Forney repeated that there appears to be a discrepancy of 150,000 gallons per day between pumping and billing.
Hickey said the town did identify and long-standing leak in a service line at U.S. Silica.
Schene said some leaks require Division of Highways right of way access to fix, which slows repairs down.
“We can pump a million gallons a day, but it won’t be treated,” said Schene.
He said rebuilding the water treatment plant with new microfiltering technology would increase capacity, at a cost of $7-$8 million.
Even those upgrades would impede water capacity, because the town would have to bring in water trucks to pump treated water to existing customers while the plant was down for upgrades.
Engineers for the water line extension estimated that new customers on the longer water line would add another 32,000 gallons per day in water demand. Town officials disputed that figure, saying it was based on 2020 water usage numbers.
“A single industrial user could be taking 15-20,000 gallons per day,” said Schene.
Rick Mayhew said the readings of gallons pumped out of the plant are not accurate because a piece of equipment called a “totalizer” in the plant needs to be installed differently to be accurate.
“I would say it’s reading 20% more than we’re doing,” said Rick #.
He said the plant is pumping 300-400,000 gallons of water per day now, at 18-20 hours per day.
“The PSC (Public Service Commission) requires four hours down time to let the pumps cool down,” said Mayhew.
Commission President Bill Clark didn’t hide his agitation that town officials were questioning if they could meet water demands.
“If you want to talk about the future, we can. But you’re talking about not giving us the water,” Clark said.
Hickey said the issue is not if the town wants to supply water, but if it has the water to supply.
“If we get to that point, the PSC will step in,” said Hickey.
“We’re trying to avoid a critical error,” Schene said. “If we have to call the Country Inn and tell them ‘You don’t have water and have to cancel 50 reservations,’ that’s not a call I want to make.”
Commissioner Forney said he agreed that the town and county have to plan for the future.
Councilwoman Hickey reminded commissioners they had made a commitment several years back to identify find a second public water source as a backup to the springs as the line extension goes forward.
Forney said the county is still committed to doing that, and said it was “frustrating” that the town didn’t appear to accept that commitment.
Hickey said the trend of water usage is already moving toward the maximum capacity of the treatment plant, even before the water line extension.
“We needed the secondary water source to be further along,” she said.
Mayor Schene called the town “good partners” in county development, and said they have “eyes on everything” related to the future of water demand and capacity.
“The concern is what does the growth look like? We can’t be non-compliant. We’re trying to look around the corner with you guys,” he said.
Forney said planning without zoning in Morgan County can be hard.
“Sometimes we don’t know about development plans until they come to the Planning Commission,” he said. “We can only be so strategic if we don’t know it’s coming.”
“The capacity of the water plant to be able to absorb the growth brought by the water extension is what we’re talking about. Somewhere in the next five years, we’re going to push the capacity to the maximum,” Mayor Schene said.
Hickey said reaching that maximum would trigger the PSC to step in.
“It seems utterly irresponsible and derelict for us not to flag that for you,” she said.
Commissioner Forney said he was glad to see the Town of Bath is “actively engaged” in planning for the future.
“Our commitment to the water project has not gone away, but it comes with a heavy caveat about reaching customers at the end of the line,” Hickey said.
