Berkeley County Receives $400,000 for Flood Prevention

Berkeley County officials recently secured an additional $400,000 to put toward finding a solution to storm water management woes that have plagued Inwood, W.Va., residents for years. A project is currently in the planning phase; it aims to alleviate area flooding by transporting storm water out of the Inwood watershed and into an area where it will drain properly.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.) claimed the funds for the county's storm water management project through the Central West Virginia Environmental Infrastructure Program. The newly acquired money will be combined with the $1.2 million that has been obtained over the years, said Curtis Keller, general manager for the Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District.

"This will be added to that to help bring the project along," he said, adding that a great deal of preliminary work still needs to be done before project construction can begin.

As project planners continue brainstorming setups for the new infrastructure, county officials will be seeking more funding sources to help get the work under way. According to Keller, project costs have increased since planning the storm water project began so construction would likely occur in phases. An initial $3 or $4 million price tag has jumped to its current amount of $20 million.

Prior to this most recent funding, Capito had obtained $650,000 in grants for the project, Keller said. The Sewer District and the county have about $575,000 in additional funding, $250,000 of which has been sunk into the planning stages of the project.

Capito recalled initially obtaining storm water project funds when problems caused by a lack of infrastructure were brought to her attention about five years ago. She said Monday that she hopes the new funding will move the project along.

"It certainly won't complete it, but every bit helps," she said. "With growth and construction, this issue has become far more dire and greater than it was in the beginning... I think it's a very important project that's obviously high on the commission's list of things to do."

Source: The Journal News