McDowell County advances major water and sewer projects across communities

Water and sewer work across McDowell County is shifting from paper plans to projects that will change daily life at the tap, at home, and in local businesses. The county’s Public Service District is pushing several builds at once, and the question now is not whether the work matters, but which communities will feel it first.

Service is moving from the county line toward the kitchen sink

The biggest projects now in motion include the Elkhorn Water Project Phase 3, an extension of the Anawalt Water Project, and the Berwind Lake Water Extension Project. At the same time, the district is finishing a new sewer system in Iaeger and preparing to take over water and sewer operations in Gary under an operations-and-maintenance agreement approved by the West Virginia Public Service Commission. That mix of new pipe, new plant work, and state-backed oversight shows how broad the county’s utility push has become.

Mavis Brewster, the PSD’s executive director, said the main construction on the Iaeger sewer project is already complete and crews are now connecting homes. She also said the sewer plant has been operating for about a month and a half, which makes Iaeger the clearest place where residents are likely to see the first real change in everyday service.

Iaeger: the project that is closest to home

In Iaeger, the work has crossed the point where residents stop seeing construction and start seeing service. With the plant already running and household connections underway, the project is moving into the phase that matters most for public health: getting wastewater out of homes and into a functioning system.

That matters well beyond convenience. A reliable sewer system affects whether families can stay in place, whether new homes can be built with confidence, and whether small businesses can expand without worrying about failing infrastructure. In a county where utility problems have long been part of the backdrop, the ability to connect homes one by one is a concrete sign that the investment is reaching people directly.

Elkhorn to Kimball: a water line built in phases

The Elkhorn project is designed to extend county water all the way from Elkhorn to Kimball over multiple phases, and Phase 3 is a key step in that longer buildout. Brewster said this phase will serve Northfork Hollow and Ashland Hollow, with new lines and plants in the Algoma area.

That matters because Algoma is not just another stop on a map. The area sees heavy ATV traffic because of nearby access to the Hatfield-McCoy Trails, which means utility work there supports both local households and the wider recreation economy that brings people in and out of the county. Water infrastructure in that corridor is not only about service reliability, but about whether the area can support tourism, mobility, and future development at the same time.

The urgency around Kimball is not new. An Appalachian Voices report in April 2024 said the Kimball Water Plant’s dilapidated condition made it a high-priority replacement project. That history helps explain why the county is now treating the Elkhorn-to-Kimball corridor as more than a routine upgrade.

Anawalt and Berwind Lake: smaller projects with local consequences

The Anawalt project is expected to add around 60 customers, and about half the funding is already in place through a Community Development Block Grant. Even a project of that size can change the outlook for a small community, especially in places where household water access affects everything from routine health to the ability to start or fix a home.

The Berwind Lake extension is aimed at bringing water to pools and cabins, which gives it a different footprint from a standard neighborhood line extension. That kind of service can support a mix of residential and visitor-serving uses, and it shows how the county is trying to strengthen both year-round living and seasonal activity in the same stretch of the county.

Gary: state intervention to steady a distressed system

Gary remains one of the most important open questions in the county’s utility picture. The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved an operation-and-maintenance agreement in May 2026 that will place Gary’s water system under the McDowell County PSD, and that approval followed an earlier March 2024 finding that Gary’s sewer operations were a distressed utility under Senate Bill 739. The commission ordered Gary and the PSD to negotiate after that determination, turning a long-running problem into a formal state-supervised fix.

This is more than an administrative handoff. It is a sign that the county and the state are trying to stabilize a system that has been unable to stand on its own. For Gary residents, the promise is more reliable operations; the unanswered question is how quickly that promise turns into visible improvements in service, pressure, and confidence.

Jolo: funding closes the gap, but construction still has to follow

On June 8, Governor Patrick Morrisey announced that the McDowell County PSD received $851,000 for a Jolo-area extension along Baker Ridge Road, Panther Creek Road, Rock Ridge, and Lex. State reporting says the project will benefit 119 households and local businesses, and that the new grant, combined with funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, closes the $1.8 million financing needed for the work.

That makes Jolo one of the clearest examples of how these projects move from concept to execution. The money is now in place, but residents still have to wait for the line work to be built and activated. When it arrives, the payoff should be practical: more reliable access for homes, and a stronger foundation for business activity along those roads.

A broader countywide pattern of strain and repair

The county’s own public notices show why this buildout keeps expanding. McDowell County PSD has posted repeated boil-water advisories and lifts across multiple systems through 2024, 2025, and 2026, including Tidewater-Kimball, Crumpler, Big Four, Maybeury, Coalwood, Anawalt, Bartley, Caretta, Buchanan, Ashland, Berwind, Newhall, Endwell, Squire, and Cucumber. That pattern shows the work is not happening in a vacuum. It is a response to systems that have repeatedly needed attention just to keep serving people safely.

The financial backdrop also matters. In February 2026, McDowell and Mingo counties together received $9.5 million in AMLER funding for five critical water and sewer projects, giving the region a broader pipeline of work beyond the newest announcements. The McDowell County PSD, which says it has served the county since 1990, also points residents to customer confidence reports on its website, another reminder that water service now comes with greater public scrutiny and a higher expectation of accountability.

The first communities most likely to feel the change are Iaeger, where hookups are already under way, and the areas covered by the Jolo grant once construction begins. Gary is still waiting for the new operations arrangement to show results, while Elkhorn, Anawalt, Berwind Lake, and the Kimball corridor remain part of a longer countywide rebuild. What happens next will decide whether McDowell County’s water future looks like a series of isolated fixes or a real shift toward safer, steadier service for the places that have waited the longest.