WV committing $19M to Clarksburg for final phase of lead water pipe replacement project

by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
October 20, 2025

The state of West Virginia is investing $19 million to help upgrade and replace portions of Clarksburg’s aging water infrastructure, according to an announcement from Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Monday.

The money will help support the Clarksburg Water Board with its ongoing replacement of hazardous lead service lines in the area, which can pose serious health risks to exposed individuals. It will also assist with upgrading the system’s water mains, enhancing fire protection, decreasing leaks and modernizing water meters for customers throughout the system.

“Every West Virginian should be able to turn on the tap and know that the water coming out is safe,” Morrisey said. “For too long, aging infrastructure has threatened the health and safety of our communities. This investment is about restoring trust in our public systems.”

According to its 2025 annual report with the state Public Service Commission, the Clarksburg Water Board provides water service to about 7,800 households in the area. It sells water to thousands of other customers. 

The $19 million committed to Clarksburg by the state this month will help cover costs associated with the final phase of the city’s ongoing lead line replacement project.

The total cost of that project phase — phase 3B, according to Clarksburg Water Board General Manager Jason Myers — is $50 million.

Myers said the project will “hopefully” go to bid in January or February of 2026. Construction would then start around June. It will take three to four years for the project to then be completed, Myers said.

Once phase 3A is complete, Myers said about 2,400 lead service lines will remain that will need to be removed during phase 3B.

The city began work to replace its lead service lines after blood tests between 2020 and 2021 showed that several children in the Clarksburg area had elevated levels of lead in their blood due to exposure from eroding and aging water service lines. 

Residents in Clarksburg — including the parents of two of those children — filed a class action lawsuit against the Water Board in 2021. They alleged in the suit that the water from the system was not safe to drink and that the water system’s leadership failed to ensure its safety by not monitoring lead levels adequately.

That same year, the Clarksburg Water Board received administrative orders from both the state health department and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to draw up a corrective action plan. That plan was meant to eradicate the presence of lead in the water system and correct numerous violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Residents at that time were provided with water filters for their homes to help prevent exposure to the lead pipes.

Experts and those in the industry said it was rare for the EPA to issue such an order to a locality. The lead levels detected, however, were so high that Erik Olson, senior strategic director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the situation “could be as bad as Flint, if not worse.”

In July 2021, the Clarksburg Water Board approved the first preliminary action plan. Since then, work has been ongoing to both detail the problem and correct it. That work has coincided with a federal rule implemented under former President Joe Biden in 2024 that requires all water systems throughout the country to find and replace millions of lead service lines by 2037.

Under that rule, West Virginia would need to find and replace at least 3% of its existing water service lines, according to EPA’s most recent Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey Assessment. Billions of dollars were made available federally for lead service line replacements through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by congress and signed by Biden in 2021.

Under President Donald Trump, however, the federal rule requiring lead line replacement as well as the funding that would make it possible for West Virginia could be under threat.

In August, Trump’s EPA said it would defend the newly amended federal Lead and Copper rule — the changes made within it represented the largest update made in more than 30 years. Details, however, remain unclear on how it will be implemented as the Trump Administration has focused heavily on environmental deregulation and cuts to government spending.

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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.