Flanked by state lawmakers in an auditorium last month, Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a law to stamp out what he called “that woke virus that’s invaded West Virginia.”

Since day one, the governor has purged state government of policies promoting fair and full participation of all people — particularly those historically excluded. He has demonized diversity, equity and inclusion practices as “DEI.”

At West Virginia’s other universities, officials quickly closed diversity offices, changed job titles and removed statements from websites.

“DEI is dead in the Mountain State,” Morrisey said. The crowd applauded. 

But months earlier, both of the state’s historical Black universities said they would not change. No offices closed. No job titles altered. No statements removed. 

Both were founded when the state’s universities did not allow Black students.

West Virginia State University serves a diverse student body, wrote the university’s general counsel, and “remains committed to its historical mission of academic excellence, equity, and opportunity.” 

Bluefield State University — the state’s other historically Black university — also told the governor that it has never had a “DEI” office that could be eliminated. 

Black universities never needed DEI

The Morrill Land Grant Act, passed during the Civil War, allowed states to pay for the creation of universities. But in many states, particularly former Confederate states, officials barred Black students from the nation’s fledgling higher education system.

Nearly thirty years later, Congress came back and ordered West Virginia and others to either open their universities to Black students or create separate colleges. 

At this time, West Virginia State and Bluefield State were founded and would be the only place where Black West Virginians could get an education for decades. 

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed school segregation across the country. Since then, “Bluefield State continued its commitment to the higher education of first-generation, low-income and marginalized individuals and attracted students and employees, regardless of race or other classification,” General Counsel Brent Benjamin wrote in a letter.  

The university has never had diversity training, policies or a dedicated office like the ones Morrisey banned, he wrote.

“Bluefield State follows the principles of equal opportunity and merit,” the lawyer wrote.

Spokesperson Drew Galang said the governor expects all universities to comply with his executive order. Galang did not identify any concerns with the current programs at West Virginia State and Bluefield State, and said Morrisey  “recognizes the historical mission” of the Black universities.

Historically Black universities like West Virginia State and Bluefield State have a long history of serving Black students because of discrimination at other universities, said Marybeth Gasman, an education professor at Rutgers University. But they also serve white students, Latino students, Asian students and international students.

Today, university leaders argue that they have not participated in diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But many support the underlying principle that everyone should have equal access to education, she said.

“They’re walking sort of a fine line here,” she said. 

Both West Virginia universities are now majority-white, with minority students making up less than a quarter of the student body at each university. Students are mostly from in-state. More than half of the freshman class at each qualified for federal low-income student aid in 2024. 

“When it comes to diversity and inclusiveness, that’s really baked into who we are as an institution as part of our DNA,” Ericke Cage, president of West Virginia State University, told Inside Higher Ed earlier this year. 

“At our very core, we are all about being a highly inclusive institution where any student, regardless of their background, can come and get a good-quality education.”

Historically white institutions change to comply

Black universities were founded to include more people in higher education, said Felecia Commodore, an education professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They’ve never been exclusionary, so they haven’t really needed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“Historically white institutions have had to engage in diversity, equity and  inclusion reform to remedy the discriminatory practices they had at their foundation,” she said.

The governor asked state lawmakers to codify his ban on diversity initiatives into law. In mid-April, they passed a ban on universities having diversity officers, hiring preferences based on diversity or requiring diversity training.

The bill exempts academic courses, research and student organizations. Engineering opportunities for women, single-sex sports or bathrooms and efforts to prevent sexual harassment are also among the exemptions.

To comply, the state’s flagship West Virginia University closed its Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — which the governor called “a big win.”

At WVU and other universities across the state, administrators have changed titles, removed statements from websites and ended diversity training.

At Marshall, the Women’s and Gender Center is now the Women’s Center. The Division of Intercultural and Student Affairs is now the Division of Student Affairs. 

At the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, officials removed “multicultural” and “equal opportunity” from jobs titles, struck a diversity statement from its website and discontinued a committee whose work the school had promoted just years earlier.

Diversity bans at the state and federal level have often been vaguely wrapped in rhetoric about preventing racial discrimination, said Commodore. Universities have hastily interpreted these laws. 

“We have this blanket term that has no definition,” she said. “Which leaves a lot of leeway for it to be interpreted however folks want.”

Morrisey targeted DEI at colleges. West Virginia’s historically black universities said they won’t change. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Jim Martin was fed up. 

Inside a hearing room, the CEO of Bridgeport-based internet provider CityNet pointed a finger at lawyers for the state’s public utilities.

“They’ve held a gun to our heads,” he said, raising his voice. “If they were policing their poles, there would be no extra costs for us.” 

Throughout the hours-long hearing at the West Virginia Public Service Commission last week, other internet providers described mounting project delays, unpredictable costs and frustrations with utility companies. 

At the center of it all: how to get internet to every West Virginian when the state receives a once-in-a-lifetime $1.2 billion investment in the coming years.

American Electric Power and FirstEnergy own the physical poles that internet companies need to attach cables to. 

But many are decades old, in poor condition or too short for internet lines and must be replaced. The utilities have said they inspect poles about once a decade and have resisted efforts to require more information about their poles. 

When the hearing began, lawyers for utility companies and internet providers exchanged tense glances.

PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane surveyed the sea of broadband experts and adjusted her microphone. 

“I am just appalled that we are here today, still fighting over this issue,” she said. 

A fight over poles and priorities

West Virginia is on the brink of a plan to bring high-speed internet to every home and business. But on the ground, progress is being slowed by a bitter fight over who should pay for the upgrades to utility poles. 

FirstEnergy and American Electric Power, which both own utility poles across the state, argue that if an internet company wants to use their poles and they need to be replaced, they should foot the bill. 

Internet companies say they’re being hit with unnecessary extra costs to fix errors from the past, arguing it’s the responsibility of the utility companies to ensure their poles are up to safety codes and in good condition.

To connect residents, technicians must install fiber-optic cables that carry higher internet speeds onto poles owned by the power companies. Together, AEP and FirstEnergy own over a million poles. 

But these poles were originally built to carry electricity, not modern broadband. 

Most utility poles are wooden and can last between 30 and 40 years if properly treated and maintained. Wood decay, bug infestations or weather can damage poles, which then require replacements. 

If a pole doesn’t have the height or space for fiber lines, broadband providers must pay to replace it. Each company with equipment on the pole must then send out crews to move their gear, a time-consuming process known as “make-ready” work. 

Any pole that needs a new attachment must be brought up to the national electrical safety code. If a pole needs to be replaced, it can cost $4,000 or more. 

In 2023, federal officials adopted rules stating that internet providers and pole owners must share the costs of replacing these poles. But so far, West Virginia regulators haven’t adopted similar rules.

In Ohio and Kentucky, state governments have started paying for pole replacements. In 2022, West Virginia lawmakers proposed a similar fund but did not create it. 

Pole replacements are the largest roadblock to building broadband, said John Conwell, a Comcast executive. It’s not just in a few cases, he explained. 

In major projects, 20 to 30% of poles often need to be replaced, resulting in thousands of poles and prolonging projects for months, he said.  

Utilities push back on reforms, citing a focus on customers 

There’s no statewide database to keep track of the health, age or safety compliance of utility poles. 

In meetings with the companies and regulators before the hearing, the broadband office proposed a pole database and asked for a role in pole disputes. 

Internet companies want additional data on each pole’s condition before a project begins, including its capacity, age and location in a universal database. 

In March, state regulators said they need more information before deciding whether to require data from utilities about their poles.  

Still, both of the utility companies have objected to several proposals, including establishing a pole inspection database, requiring annual reports to regulators, and creating a working group of industry experts. 

In the northern half of the state, FirstEnergy subsidiaries MonPower and Potomac Edison inspect their poles every 12 years. AEP subsidiaries Wheeling Power and Appalachian Power inspect their poles once a decade. 

FirstEnergy collects some data about the condition of its poles, but because of how infrequently inspections are conducted, this information is likely outdated, said Ronay Tenney, director of engineering services, during the hearing.

Peter Markham, a lawyer for the state’s broadband council, asked her: Could a contractor collect data, or could there be a new form?

“We never said it was impossible to collect it,” she replied. “Our position is that it is not worth it.” 

Markham paused, then jumped back in: It’s not worth collecting the data?

Not beyond the data we already have, Tenney replied. “Because they do not serve our electric customers any purpose.” 

“So broadband is not a priority?” he asked.

“Wow, you’ve really twisted that around, haven’t you?” she said. “Broadband is absolutely a priority, and for anyone to think that FirstEnergy doesn’t feel that way is wrong.”

“We want broadband just as much as everybody else,” she added. 

Many poles have been grandfathered in. It met safety standards decades ago when it was first installed, but when an internet provider wants to attach new equipment, the pole must be brought to modern standards, which can result in a pole replacement, Tenney said.  

George Porter, a spokesperson for AEP’s subsidiary, Appalachian Power, said it would be extremely expensive to upgrade each of the company’s half million poles. 

“Imposing additional regulatory burdens on pole owners hinders broadband deployment in West Virginia, and in some cases, creates a divide between broadband companies and pole owners,” he said.  

And these disputes are already delaying projects funded by other broadband programs. 

Kelly Workman, who leads the state’s broadband office, is urging the various companies to cooperate on “the single most important, most significant issue to broadband expansion in our state.” 

She said she wasn’t asking utilities to take on extra work, just to share information about the poles they already own and inspect, and to work with the office to fill in the gaps. 

“The speed at which we’re going is not sufficient,” she said.

West Virginia’s broadband future hangs on aging utility poles. Nobody wants to pay to fix them. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

West Virginia could lose out on millions of dollars for drinking water and sewer systems under a Trump administration proposal to slash the federal funding for clean and drinking water programs in the state by 89%. 

The two funds help states provide loans to communities at low or no interest to fund a variety of water quality infrastructure projects, including drinking water and sewer systems.

They are commonly known as revolving funds because repayments and interest go back into funding more projects.

In recent years, West Virginia regulators have increased efforts to address the state’s aging water and sewer infrastructure and expand access  —- largely spurred on by “historic” investments in such projects by the Biden administration.  

But that money is still just a little of what is needed.

It would cost about $1 billion to fix and update water systems for just the communities that have already requested funds, according to the 2023 Needs Assessment by the central funding authority for infrastructure projects throughout the state. Sixteen to 20 times that amount would be needed to meet all of the state’s water and sewer needs.

Trump’s proposed cuts could cost West Virginia a crucial pot of money at a time where the state is already struggling to meet the needs for drinking water and sewer systems.

“It would decimate the ability to do meaningful projects that need to be done, whether they are repair and replacement or expansion of service,” said Amy Swann, who sits on the board of the state’s Water Development Authority.

While the state has various pots of money that help fund water and sewer projects, the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds make up an “extremely significant portion” of that funding. 

 “I just don’t see a way that the state could make up that money,” she added.  

The proposed cuts 

In its budget for fiscal year 2026, the White House proposed cutting funding to the programs nationwide by nearly $2.5 billion, saying that states should “be responsible for funding their own water infrastructure projects.” 

Such a cut would leave West Virginia with only a fraction of its previous funding levels.

For fiscal year 2025, the EPA has earmarked an initial $35.6 million for West Virginia through the two programs. 

But under the proposed cut, the state’s annual funds for the programs could fall to under $4 million.  

The loss in funding will feel especially harsh because money from the Biden administration’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act runs out at the end of 2026. 

Senators from both parties have voiced concerns over the proposed cuts to the program that has often had bipartisan support.

“State revolving funds have helped many West Virginians, and many around the country, get connected with the water access and resources that they need,” said West Virginia’s Sen. Shelley Moore Capito in her opening remarks during last month’s hearing on the EPA’s budget request.

She told EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin that she hoped to work together to “make sure that adequate resources remain available to support our water systems.” 

This proposal is part of a broader set of spending cuts to the EPA. Trump’s proposal includes eliminating the federal agency’s environmental justice program and cuts to its research and development office and hazardous superfund program. 

While Trump has submitted his budget to Congress, his proposal is just a recommendation and lawmakers aren’t required to adopt it. 

The future of West Virginia’s water infrastructure 

Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced grants to three “critical” water and sewer projects, including $1 million for the Town of Bradshaw’s sewer project. 

“Today, we are making an investment in West Virginia’s future,” Morrisey said. “Infrastructure projects like these are critical for the daily lives of our residents, and will help attract new residents, businesses, and jobs to the Mountain State.”

That $8.6 million project to address Bradshaw’s long-standing sewer system issues also received $2 million in funding through the Clean Water Revolving Fund — one of the programs facing steep cuts.

When asked about the proposed cuts, spokesperson Drew Galang said that the governor “is working to address years of mismanagement that led to the current need for water and sewer upgrades across the state.” 

Although West Virginia has made some improvements in its water and sewer infrastructure in recent years, the need remains much larger than the resources available. And such a cut in federal funding could further exacerbate that. 

“It just really takes a vulnerable state like we live in and increases that vulnerability one million percent,” Swann said.  

Trump administration proposal would cut nearly 90% of federal funding to West Virginia water and sewer programs appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

President Donald Trump’s administration has cut jobs weakening Social Security, a poverty-prevention program, and proposed numerous other changes that threaten to dismantle it.

More than one quarter of West Virginians rely on Social Security. 

Here’s what some of them, including retirees, former foster kids and people with disabilities told us they’re thinking about and what they stand to lose, from health care to housing to dignity:

A grandfamily

Patty Hoffman, 59, is raising her grandkids. She has concerns she won’t be able to take care of them anymore if she loses her Social Security benefits, but she said for now, she’s in “wait and see” mode.

“I’m not letting it worry me so much, because if I do, I make everybody else pay for it,” she said. “And I’m not doing that. That’s not fair.”

Hoffman, of Philippi, spent years working as a nurse aide, lifting patients, which resulted in severe back pain. 

She said it had gotten so bad that she could only sit for an hour and had to crawl through her house.  Now she has good days and bad days, but can still only be on her feet for about 15 minutes at a time. 

When she applied for disability benefits through Social Security, officials initially said if she could sit, she could work. Her lawyer argued she’d had to lie down in his office.

Without benefits, she wouldn’t be able to buy her grandkids’ clothes or pay bills.

“I’d be worried to death,” she said. “I wanted them to have a better life.” 

A former foster kid

A former ward of the state, Sarah Fox was shuffled from home to home and from shelters to psychiatric hospitals as a child, instead of getting help.

As a result, she doesn’t trust easily. She carries the lingering fear that she’s too much or too needy, so she’ll be rejected.

These mental health struggles create hurdles in the workplace and frequent job changes. Job expectations can create fear of rejection. 

Even before the Trump administration’s changes to the program, Fox worried about losing the assistance. She said the paperwork and work reviews for Social Security are consistently substantial and daunting.

“I cried and called 988 because I was already overwhelmed with paperwork and they sent me more,” she said, referring to the suicide hotline. 

Benefits subsidize her income. But she can’t trust that any help will last.

An 80-year-old retiree

After paying into Social Security for decades, Charlene Campolongo is able to live comfortably, if frugally. 

But she is disturbed by the administration saying it’s uncovering fraud and abuse, when she says they’re targeting people rightfully owed benefits.

“They’re saying that there are people that are 130 years old, collecting Social Security,” she said. “Now, does that make any sense to you?” 

Trump had said tens of millions of people over 100 years were receiving payments, but news outlets debunked that and computer programmers quickly realized that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team didn’t understand how to read the database. 

Campolongo, of Morgantown, worked at sewing factories and stores, then as an aide for people with health problems who required in-home care and as a medical biller.

Now 80, she and her husband receive Social Security benefits and pensions.

“I am concerned about what’s going on with our country,” she said. “We paid into that the whole time we were working. They have no business touching that money.”

A Fairmont protester

A self-described “news junkie,” Barbara Earl, 71, said it’s clear the administration wants to dissolve Social Security, starting with layoffs. 

She worked for the state education department as a special education assistant. She retired at age 63 and receives a pension and Social Security retirement benefits.

Her husband initially received disability benefits, following an injury he received working for a mining equipment manufacturer, and he now receives non-disability-related retirement benefits. He receives no pension.

Without the benefits, banks would foreclose on their home and vehicle, and her husband wouldn’t be able to pay for treatment for his diabetes and heart problem. 

“And we would be out on the street,” she said.

She thinks federal officials want citizens helpless. 

Trump has said he won’t touch Social Security.

Earl believes “their ultimate goal is to get rid of all social programs.”

She said she has written to the state’s federal representatives. Some responded, saying they support Social Security. 

But, Earl said, “Every time they’ve voted, they’ve voted to support everything this administration is doing to cut benefits for the working class and poor.”

So, she attends organized protests. 

“I am fighting it because I will go down fighting, but it’s just unbelievable that this would even happen in America.”

In an email, Nicolas Gray, spokesperson for Rep. Carol Miller, noted that Miller had voted for the spending bill that gives an enhanced standard income tax deduction to seniors over 65, amounting to a reduction of about $4,000 in their taxes for the next four years. Gray accused Mountain State Spotlight of “falsely telling or even suggesting to people their benefits are being cut when they are indisputably going up.”

Others who reached out to Mountain State Spotlight reported that they have not gotten responses from their representatives.

Spokespersons for West Virginia’s Congressional representatives, Shelley Moore Capito, Jim Justice, Riley Moore and Carol Miller did not respond to questions about why they have not responded to the concerns of other constituents. 

“We’re not going to survive this administration,” Earl said. 

A former Child Protective Services worker 

Cheryl Jones, a former Child Protective Services worker and support worker for people who were homeless, is worried that the Trump administration will do away with Social Security and cut other programs that help the poor and disabled. 

Jones, 64 of Saint Albans, worked as a Child Protective Services worker for about 10 years. She left that job about 20 years ago. Before she took early retirement, she had moved to a position helping the homeless.

She was experiencing depression, both because of the lingering burnout and stress of CPS work, and the more recent deaths of her parents.

“My work was suffering,” she said. “My personal life was suffering. And I thought, ‘something has got to give.’” 

Her husband’s salary is too low to support the family if she loses her Social Security retiree benefits, and they’re raising their grandson. 

“It just makes me mad that they think that they can go in and do whatever they want like it’s their money, and it’s not their money,” she said.

We asked West Virginians about Social Security. Here’s what they told us. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

For more than five years, the Chemours Chemical Company in Wood County has discharged unlawful levels of cancer-causing chemicals into the Ohio River.

West Virginia environmentalists want a federal judge to stop these pollution violations. Over three days of testimony last week, they made their case in a courtroom showdown with the chemical company.

Here’s what West Virginians need to know.

What’s the case about?

In December, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued Chemours over the company’s Washington Works plant for discharging PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” into the Ohio River at levels exceeding the amount allowed.

Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to several serious health conditions, including cancer, liver and kidney damage, developmental problems and immune system disorders. Such chemicals — which resist heat, water, oil and grease — are used to produce everyday items, including nonstick pots and pans.

The former DuPont, now Chemours, Washington Works plant near Parkersburg has a long history of public health and environmental concerns related to its use of C8, which is a type of forever chemical the plant previously used but has since replaced. 

Since 2019, the Washington Works site has violated its permit limits by discharging pollution, including forever chemicals, at levels higher than allowed into the Ohio River, which supplies drinking water for more than five million people. 

Despite a 2023 order to require the company to address its violations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not taken any further enforcement actions. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has also not taken additional steps to enforce the company’s permit limits.  

In 2024, Chemours asked both agencies for an additional three years to upgrade its treatment system in order to comply. 

Chemours acknowledges the plant has violated its permit limits. But they argue that they are working with the EPA to address the issues. But more than two years later, Chemours still hasn’t submitted a plan the EPA will approve.

DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher said the state agency “remains actively engaged and continues to coordinate with EPA to advance implementation of corrective actions and pursue a high-level resolution of the violations.” 

The EPA is currently reviewing the updated plan Chemours submitted in April, said an agency spokesperson in an email. 

“Chemours is continuing to work with EPA to submit additional information and secure the final approval needed to implement the projects,” said a spokesperson for the company. 

Why does it matter

West Virginia regulators established stricter permit limits for the company in 2022 after the EPA tightened drinking water standards for these chemicals at safe levels. 

During last week’s hearing, Chemours attorney James Walls said that the plant mainly operated within its permit limits between 2018 and 2022, but has since struggled to comply.

In November 2024, the manufacturing site exceeded its average monthly limit for a specific forever chemical, which is sometimes known as GenX, at one of its discharge outlets by 4.5 times the level allowed by their permit. 

The coalition said that the spike in pollution was so large that it was noticeable hundreds of miles downstream of the plant on the Ohio River. 

In Cincinnati, a water system that supplies 1.1 million people drinking water, saw increased levels of GenX in all their samples since July 2024, with concentrations nearly double the maximum level established by the EPA. Officials from the Ohio water system said that its treatment system is much less effective at removing this type of forever chemical and expressed concern of an increased risk to public health, according to court filings.  

A water system in Louisville, which serves about 1 million people, also experienced a similar increase in Gen-X levels, including in December when the concentration was five times higher than the EPA guidance. 

What happened at the hearing? 

In February, the coalition asked U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin to temporarily order Chemours to comply with its permit limits until he could hear the full case.

Last week, attorneys for both Chemours and the coalition filed into Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse in Charleston, with binders, boxes and briefcases for their hearing in front of Goodwin on the matter. 

Over the course of three days, the judge heard hours of testimony from six witnesses, including three Chemours employees.  

Catherine Boston, a human health assessor hired by Chemours as an expert witness, evaluated the health risks through the next year if the company continued to violate its permit. She testified that she concluded that there was no known or anticipated risk to human health if Washington Works continued as is.

Boston also said that a one time excess of forever chemicals in drinking water doesn’t mean there’s a human health risk.

Jennifer Schlezinger, a Boston University toxicologist, hired by the coalition as an expert witness, testified that any exposure to a level of forever chemicals that exceeds the EPA’s guidance in drinking water would pose a risk to human health.

Schlezinger also said that the communities served by the Lubeck Public Water District near the plant face a higher risk of harm because they have a history of exposure to forever chemicals from past contamination. 

The coalition argued that without the court’s temporary order, Chemours’ continued permit violations will cause irreparable harm to the public and the environment from forever chemicals, which don’t naturally break down. 

The DEP set the permit limit for forever chemicals “at a level necessary to protect drinking water from the Ohio River and public health,” the coalition wrote in their brief. “Consequently, violation of that limit will cause irreparable harm to the designated use of the Ohio River” to those who drink water from it. 

Chemours also said that a temporary order would work against the interest of the public because the Washington Works site employs hundreds of people. Plant manager James Hollingsworth testified that about 500 people would lose their jobs if the facility shut down production, adding that the local economy would also lose out on $70 million of annual payroll

The coalition said that under federal law, economic harm, including stopping production and job loss, isn’t a valid defense when a company violates their permit.  

What’s next in the case?

Goodwin has ordered both parties to submit briefs on what qualifies as harm in this case to help him rule on the coalition’s request for an order requiring Chemours to immediately stop violating its permit limits.  

At the end of the first day of testimony, Goodwin said that he was no longer agreeable to a trial slated for next year. Instead, he told the attorneys that he was moving it up to this September, given the severity of the issue. 

For Chemours to take at least 26 months to comply with its permit limits, Goodwin said, is “totally unacceptable.”

Chemours and environmentalists face off in court over unlawful pollution in the Ohio River. Here’s what to know. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

West Virginia regulators’ plans to reduce cancer-causing chemicals in the state’s drinking water has stalled because the Trump administration canceled funding for the project. 

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection officials were using a $1 million federal grant to work with communities to address the source of PFAS, known as forever chemicals, in public water supplies. The project was focused in communities with the highest levels of forever chemicals in their water.

Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to several serious health conditions, including cancer, liver and kidney damage, developmental problems and immune system disorders. 

And in West Virginia, such chemical contamination has been a prevalent issue. The former DuPont, now Chemours, Washington Works plant near Parkersburg saw a decades-long legal battle over its use of Teflon and the surrounding community’s exposure to forever chemicals. 

But, earlier this year, the state’s grant to fund the effort was canceled by the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s been a kind of multiyear process to even get the resources to be able to fund these plans. And right now, without it, we’re back at square one,” said Maria Russo, a policy specialist at West Virginia Rivers Coalition, which is working with the DEP.  

The grant was part of the DEP’s effort to fulfill its obligations under a state law that requires the agency to identify sources of the chemicals in drinking water and develop plans to address the contamination. When lawmakers passed the measure in 2023, they didn’t give the agency any additional funding to do the work.

In March, the EPA sent the DEP a memo informing the state agency that it was terminating the grant, stating that its objectives were “no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” 

The EPA also said that their priority to eliminate discrimination in all programs includes ensuring its grants don’t support programs or organizations that promote or take part in environmental justice as well as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“As with any change in Administration, the agency is reviewing each grant program to ensure it is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with Administration priorities,” an EPA spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement, adding that the agency found that the grant application didn’t support the current administration’s priorities.

The DEP’s grant was one of more than 400 grants totaling more than $1.5 billion canceled by Trump’s EPA. 

The state agency disputed the EPA’s decision to cancel their grant. The federal agency responded, saying it will issue a decision within about six months, said DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher.

This also comes as the future of two historic EPA rules regulating forever chemicals in drinking water and holding polluters responsible for cleanup face uncertainty. The federal agency asked for additional time in the two lawsuits challenging the rules to decide its next steps. 

The EPA could weaken forever chemicals regulations

Although regulations of forever chemicals in drinking water avoided the initial rounds of slashes and rollbacks by the EPA under the Trump administration, there’s anticipation it’s only a matter of time. 

Last year, the EPA finalized two rules that would help address the emergence of forever chemicals contamination.

In one rule, EPA set limits for six types of the chemicals in drinking water and gave water systems five years to comply. A collection of water utilities and chemical industry groups challenged the limits, arguing that the federal agency didn’t consider “critical data” in establishing the regulations. 

In February, the EPA asked the court to pause the case to allow the agency’s new leadership to review the rule. The agency is due to tell the court its next steps by May 12. 

In the other rule, the EPA also listed two types of forever chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, which could make a wide range of industries liable for cleanups. That change was also challenged by the chemical industry and other business and industry stakeholders.   

The federal agency, again, asked for a brief hold in this case, which was granted, giving the EPA until May 30. 

In an April 28 press release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin outlined upcoming moves by the agency to address forever chemicals, including contamination in drinking water and requiring polluters to pay for such clean up. 

“I have long been concerned about PFAS and the efforts to help states and communities dealing with legacy contamination in their backyards,” he said in a statement. “This is just a start of the work we will do on PFAS to ensure Americans have the cleanest air, land, and water.” 

However, public health experts and environmental groups are skeptical, raising concerns that those moves won’t adequately address forever chemicals. 

“If you peeled back the veneer, what you saw is that they failed to directly address the two super important decisions on PFAS that are right in front of them, staring them in the face,” said Erik D. Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council’s senior strategic director for health.  

“They refuse to basically address the most important decisions that are facing them right now,” he added. “And that may not be a great sign, but we don’t know for sure what they’re thinking.” 

Forever chemicals in West Virginia

A 2022 state study found that the levels of four types of forever chemicals exceeded safe limits in the water supply of 136 public water systems.

The discovery meant that more than “700,000 West Virginians are at risk for serious health conditions” because of their exposure to forever chemicals, “with low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately affected,” according to the DEP’s grant application.

While these chemicals were found in drinking water supplies throughout West Virginia, it was most prevalent in the Eastern and Northern Panhandles and the Ohio River Valley.

The study’s findings alarmed Jefferson County resident Greg Welter, a retired environmental engineer, and prompted him to try and find potential sources for the contamination in his community.

“I’m worried about PFAS in anybody’s water, but I’m particularly worried about it in kids’ water,” he said, as children are especially vulnerable to the harmful health impacts.  

The contamination of forever chemicals in drinking water is not a new phenomenon in West Virginia.

After decades of using C8 — a type of forever chemical that resists heat, water, oil and grease — to produce common everyday items, including nonstick pots and pans, DuPont had discovered that the chemical had seeped into the drinking water sources for surrounding communities, including Parkersburg, Vienna and Lubeck. 

The chemical’s contamination of groundwater in the community eventually led to a lawsuit that marked the beginning of what became a series of legal battles against the company that spanned more than two decades. 

In 2017, DuPont and Chemours — a spinoff of DuPont which now owns and operates the Washington Works site — agreed to pay a total of $670.7 million to settle the more than 3,500 cases in the class-action lawsuits against DuPont over health problems, including kidney and testicular cancer, caused from exposure to C8. 

DuPont has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to C8.

In December, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued Chemours, accusing the company’s Washington Works site of violating federal law since 2023 by failing to comply with its permit limits and discharging forever chemicals into the Ohio River at levels exceeding the amount allowed.

The lawsuit also alleges that the company has reported “numerous violations” of its permit limits for several chemicals, including PFOA, which is a type of forever chemical that the EPA has determined there is no safe level of exposure to. 

In 2023, the EPA issued an administrative order to force Chemours to take corrective action, but the company failed to do so, and the federal agency has not taken any further action, according to the WV Rivers’ lawsuit. 

In an emailed statement, Chemours spokesperson said that the company “is disappointed at the action given that the coalition’s concerns are already being addressed through an April 2023 Consent Order between U.S. EPA and Chemours.”

The company has submitted a plan to reduce discharges at the site and are waiting for final approval from the EPA. In the meantime, they continue to maintain, operate and monitor the treatment systems the company has installed at 10 public water systems surrounding the Washington Works facility, according to the statement. 

Later this month, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin is slated to hear the coalition’s request that the court require Chemours to stop discharging forever chemicals into the Ohio River while the case is ongoing.  

Trump’s EPA blocks effort to reduce toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in West Virginia drinking water appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

More than one-quarter of all West Virginians rely on Social Security to get by. Older West Virginians receive checks. Orphans receive payments. So do West Virginians with disabilities.

President Donald Trump is slashing Social Security Administration staff in ways that put the program at risk. 

Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley has cautioned that staffing cuts mean recipients could soon start missing payments. 

Ultimately, O’Malley warned of “system collapse.” 

And West Virginians have a lot to lose.

What is Social Security? 

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating one of the key programs of his New Deal to combat the Great Depression. 

Most working Americans pay into the program through paycheck deductions. When they retire, they receive money back.

Recipients of Social Security include retired people and disabled people who’ve worked but can no longer work or who can’t make enough money to meet their needs. It helps people whose family members have died, retired or become disabled.

Supplemental Security Income, also known as SSI, covers low-income aged, blind and disabled people, even if their disabilities prevented them from working in the past.

The average retired worker in West Virginia receives about $1,800 a month.

Social Security has been a tremendously successful program. Prior to its creation, as many as three-quarters of Americans age 65 or older lived in poverty. Today, that number is about 10%.

A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of Census data found that 22 million more Americans would have been below the poverty line in 2023 if not for Social Security.

Who are the West Virginians who rely on Social Security?

West Virginians benefit from Social Security more than any other state.

More than a quarter of West Virginians – nearly 480,000 – were receiving Social Security benefits as of December 2023.

That included more than 300,000 retirees, more than 70,000 people with disabilities and more than 33,000 children.

About 40,000 more get payments based on being low-income, elderly, blind or disabled.

Social Security kept 156,000 West Virginians aged 65 or older above the poverty line from 2021 to 2023, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis.

Social Security staff workers are especially in demand in West Virginia. Staff decreased nationwide by 15% from 2010 to 2021, as Congress kept cutting funds for the agency. In West Virginia, the workforce shrank by 33% during that time period.

What is the Trump administration doing to Social Security?

In late February, the Trump administration announced it planned to cut 7,000 of 57,000 Social Security employees. 

About 2,500 agency staff took buyout offers, NPR reported last week, resulting in overwhelmed offices and longer wait times. 

While the Trump administration says part of its focus is ensuring only eligible Americans receive benefits, the agency actually needs more and not fewer workers to do that job, according to a 2024 audit of the Social Security Administration. Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits have been filed over DOGE having unfettered access to personal data housed by Social Security. 

Some people were already waiting over 200 days to get an eligibility decision.

The audit noted staffing numbers in 2024 reached one of the lowest levels over 50 years due to years of underfunding.

A Social Security press release stated that Trump is “helping all Americans access their benefits in office, over the phone, and online,” and the president has said benefits “won’t be touched.”

But Jessica LaPointe, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees, said that overburdened offices amount to cuts.

“That is the backdoor cut to the program because benefits delayed are benefits denied,” she told NPR.

The administration walked back initial plans to do away with telephone customer service and require in-person visits, moves that would have disproportionately hurt West Virginians. Initially, the agency’s Logan field office was on a list of cuts, but a spokesperson said that no West Virginia field offices would be permanently closed.

Troy Miller, the West Virginia organizer for the national advocacy nonprofit Social Security Works, noted that many West Virginians lack Internet and lack vehicles.

“You couldn’t have done a better job of trying to hurt seniors in West Virginia than to say we’re going to close down field offices, we’re going to reduce staff and we’re going to reduce what you can do calling in, and then we’re going to make you do everything online,” Miller said.

What is at stake for West Virginia?

While Trump has said he doesn’t want to “cut one penny from Social Security,” he’s also said he wants to end Social Security income taxes, which help to fund the system. 

The longevity of the program has been a concern for years. As Baby Boomers retire, the program is predicted to be unable to meet its obligations to younger generations by 2035. 

Privatization has been a goal of many Republicans, such as the powerful, right-wing Heritage Foundation for decades. 

Trump is dismantling Social Security. Here’s what’s at risk for West Virginians. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Last week, lawmakers debated whether to eliminate a small office that protects West Virginia government employees from discrimination. 

But it was already done. The employees had been reassigned. The website was no longer active.

“Who made that decision?” Del. Jonathan Kyle, R-Randolph, asked the state’s personnel director. 

The director stood in silence.

“You don’t want to throw anyone under the bus,” he said. “I understand.”

Since taking office, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration has quietly gutted an office that protects West Virginians from workplace discrimination.

The Office of Equal Opportunity investigated discrimination and harassment claims from public employees. It also enforced federal and state employment law and trained state employees. 

In January, legislative auditors said it “serves an important function.” 

“Without the [office’s] training and efforts to prevent employment discrimination and unfair workplace practices, discrimination and possible litigation may increase, which would be costly to the State and impact agencies’ effectiveness,” legislative auditors wrote. 

Lawmakers created the office and would have to approve closing it by changing state law. 

Labor and disability rights advocates warned that dismantling the office could expose workers to civil rights violations. 

“I think it’s a slap in the face for working West Virginians, minorities and disabled individuals,” said Josh Sword, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO.

Abolishing the office would remove centralized oversight for civil rights protections, said Sarah Harris, a spokesperson for DISrupt West Virginia, a disability rights organization.

Repeatedly, Morrisey has condemned “woke” practices and directed his administration to find “efficiencies” in state agencies. In his inaugural address, Morrisey vowed to “eliminate the woke mind virus from the schools.” 

“And that means starting now: no more DEI,” he said.

DEI programs promote fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly those who have been underrepresented and faced discrimination.

He immediately directed state agencies to get rid of any diversity programs and asked the Legislature to pass a similar law extending to public schools, following a larger trend this session targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts statewide. 

Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said the office was “another victim” of the broader effort by Republicans. 

“They’re so afraid of diversity, equity and inclusion that they’re trying to take it out of the code in every way that they can,” he said. 

Sen. Patrica Rucker, R-Jefferson, proposed disbanding the workplace discrimination office. Last month, she told fellow senators the change would streamline state government by merging the office with the Division of Personnel. 

“I understand what it looks like,” she said. “But we are still providing all the benefits and protections as before.” 

During a House Government Organization committee meeting on Thursday, Sheryl Webb, director of the Division of Personnel, said the change was made because the division already handled similar complaints, and this would be more efficient. 

She disclosed that the state’s designated equal opportunity coordinator, a position required by law, had already transitioned into a new job under the office of technology before any changes to state law. 

“What we would like to do is finalize what was already started,” Webb said.  

After delegates learned on Thursday that the office was already gone, the bill has not been put back on the committee’s agenda. 

In a press conference Monday, Morrisey said he had been assured everything was done by the book but is looking into the situation.

“We’re going to make sure we do it right,” he said.

The Office of Equal Opportunity worked directly with employees legally protected from discrimination on the basis of age, race, religion, sex and disability.  

It also hosted training sessions centered around diversity, harassment and management for state employees. 

In 2023, nearly half of the complaints filed with the office were based on sex discrimination, and its trainings had over 2,000 attendees, according to the legislative audit. 

Between 2022 and 2024, expenses from 23 discrimination cases cost the state approximately a million dollars in legal fees and compensation. 

In last week’s committee meeting, lawmakers peppered the state’s personnel director with questions about the office. 

Where are the employees now? Who ordered the office’s closure? Was the legislative audit considered?

After a line of questioning, Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, deduced that the office exists in law but not in practicality. 

“It’s all basically gone.”

In DEI purge, Morrisey administration quietly guts office preventing workplace discrimination appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

While the Trump administration is rewriting a federal program to bring high-speed internet to millions of households nationwide, West Virginia’s broadband expansion has been delayed for three more months. 

West Virginians will have to wait even longer to get connected, falling further behind other states that have made significant strides in broadband. 

“This 90-day delay is understandable,” said Bill Bissett, chair of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council. “But it’s still 90 days that we won’t have funding to reach unserved and underserved West Virginians who are still waiting for broadband.”

Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that the state received a three-month extension to change an application originally due later this month for more than a billion dollars in broadband money. 

He said the new extension would help the state focus on using the money to “attract investment from AI hubs, microgrids and data centers.”

In a press conference Thursday, Morrisey said he met with federal officials in the Trump administration to learn more about the proposed changes to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. 

“I want to make sure we do it right,” he said. “It would have been foolish to just submit something that was going to get rejected.”

The BEAD program is a federal investment that funds broadband projects across the country. West Virginia is slated to receive $1.2 billion of the funds later this year to connect thousands of homes and businesses. 

After nearly two years of planning, West Virginia was due to submit an application for how the state would use the money later this month. 

Other states like Delaware, Nevada and Louisiana have already submitted their applications and have been approved since early January.

In February, West Virginia broadband officials told lawmakers they were moving ahead with the final application and presented no uncertainty about potential federal changes to the program or threats to the funding. 

Just a week later, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said the BEAD program would be under “rigorous review” as the new administration worked to streamline the program requirements. 

Charlie Dennie, former director of the state’s broadband office, said federal officials are changing the program’s rules to open the door for Elon Musk’s Starlink to have a larger share of the funding following his large campaign donations to the new administration. 

“They’re most likely working to roll back the rules from the Biden administration,” he said. “But the money has already been allocated by Congress.” 

Morrisey said Thursday that the state was changing its application to meet the new rules for the program but declined to elaborate on what those changes would be.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said in a statement that she thinks the federal changes will speed up deployment and hopes the state will be moving forward in the process by the end of July.

“I’m disappointed that after nearly four years, many West Virginians have to keep waiting for broadband.”

Editors note: This story has been updated with a statement from Sen. Capito.

The Trump administration just delayed West Virginia’s broadband expansion. Here’s what that means. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Less than a two-hour drive from the nation’s capital, Berkeley County has become the epicenter of West Virginia’s housing crisis as its population booms.

Rising home values and increasing rent prices have made it harder for families to keep a roof over their heads. 

English teacher Jennifer Unger lives in Martinsburg but recently started teaching across the state line in Maryland. She said she needed higher pay to keep up with the rising cost of living in the area as she’s looking to downsize her home after her divorce.

“The rent for a decent apartment is higher than the mortgage I’m paying now for a three-bedroom house,” she said. “An average two-bedroom apartment is at least $1,500 a month here.” 

And Unger isn’t the only one concerned about housing costs. Across the state, many West Virginians are grappling with rising rents and a housing market that has priced out lower-income residents.

While counties like Berkeley and Jefferson are experiencing rapid growth, driving up housing costs, others like Tucker and Pocahontas counties are dealing with a surge in short-term rentals, limiting options for West Virginians struggling to find affordable housing. 

Despite those challenges, lawmakers have put the state’s housing crisis on the back burner this session and have not prioritized legislation to address affordability and supply issues. 

In fact, the only housing-related bills that have moved between the chambers target the state’s homeless population by banning public camping and preventing squatting, the act of living in a home without an owner’s permission. 

And the deadline to introduce new bills has already passed the House and the Senate. 

Heather Schneider, founder of the Appalachian Mutual Aid Collective in Upshur County, said lawmakers are to blame for the state’s housing problems and should be working to solve them by raising the minimum wage and supporting social services.

“Part of the issue here is that the systems that we have in place oftentimes are creating the problems, and it’s self-perpetuating,” Schneider said.

Lawmakers are still waiting for policy recommendations 

On March 19, lawmakers heard from state housing experts for the first time this session during a House Economic Development Committee meeting. 

Nate Testman, interim director of the state’s Housing Development Fund, told lawmakers he’s working with WVU researchers on a housing survey that will be completed this month.  

Preliminary data shows that nearly 150,000 West Virginia households are considered “housing overburdened,” meaning they spend more than a third of their income on housing. 

That includes 49% of renters and 20% of homeowners — an increase from 2015, when those numbers were 37% and 14%. 

Families who pay more for housing have less money to spend on essential needs like healthcare, food and other bills. The financial strain can impact mental health and well-being. 

Testman said the state’s housing crisis stems from high rent and home costs, a lack of supply of affordable housing and a growing inventory of dilapidated homes. 

“In the Eastern Panhandle, housing prices have surged,” he said. “Working families are struggling to keep up as they compete with high-end buyers from D.C.”

Committee chairman, Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, asked whether the organization looked at housing data from nearby states like Maryland. He said many West Virginians lived along bordering states. 

“Our tax structure is much better than Maryland, so the people that are moving are wanting to live on our side of the river,” he said. “That’s good for us but bad for the housing shortage.”

He declined an interview request about the meeting and the committee’s priorities. His Senate counterpart, Glenn Jeffries, R-Putnam, said he hopes more housing bills come through next year. 

“My focus has been on microgrids,” he said. “Building microgrids will be a capital investment and spur economic growth.” 

Jeffries also pointed to a bill he’s sponsoring this session that would help subsidize worker housing development projects for businesses by issuing loans covering up to 50% of project costs.

The bill advanced to the Senate Finance Committee but has not appeared on the agenda. It’s unlikely to pass before crossover day, a key legislative deadline where all bills must be moved out of each chamber tomorrow. 

Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked what the WVHDF did with the information as the organization completes statewide housing surveys every five years. 

“It feels like there’s just a lot of people doing this kind of work, and we’re just kind of spinning our wheels,” she said. 

Supply, demand and the post-pandemic market

Since at least 2013, median home values and rent prices have increased annually, according to housing data from the U.S. Census. 

In 2020, the pandemic exacerbated the housing crisis nationwide. A combination of supply chain disruptions made building materials more expensive, while low interest rates and remote work increased housing demand. 

“We didn’t know what the future of the real estate industry was going to look like,” said Del. Patrick Lucas, R-Cabell, a real estate broker in Huntington.

He also said the state’s housing supply has dwindled as developers struggle to afford materials like lumber. 

To help offset the cost of materials and to encourage more construction, lawmakers passed the Build WV Act, which created a housing development tax credit in 2022. Development projects that qualify receive a sales tax exemption for building materials. 

Developers like Terrell McSweeney Burns, who has tried to build properties in Pocahontas County, told Mountain State Spotlight that she needed more state support outside of tax credits last year. 

Home values and rent prices were already rising before the pandemic but grew rapidly as the housing market changed overnight.

Shari Stephens, director of the Hardy County Family Support Center, said home values in the Moorefield area have risen significantly over the past five years, while fewer houses are on the market. 

“Prices for houses that are move-in ready are too expensive for young families in our area,” she said. “We definitely need areas of improvement for affordable housing.”

As housing costs rise and rents become more expensive, homeless populations grow, especially in urban areas, according to Pew Research. 

Last year, the Department of Human Services reported that 1,400 people were homeless in West Virginia, an uptick of 24% since 2021. 

Stephens said that as home values increased in Hardy County, so has the county’s homeless population. 

“There’s no shelters in the county, so we’ve had to send folks to the panhandle,” she said. “Homeless people around here have been trying to find places to live for years.”

‘Spinning our wheels’: As West Virginia’s housing crisis worsens, lawmakers put solutions on the back burner appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.