A Long Struggle to Upgrade Public Water Systems in West Virginia's Coalfields

Route Fifty :COALWOOD, W.Va. — The tap water here is fine these days, according to Jenny Beavers.

“It’s heaven now,” Beavers, in her 80s, said during a recent interview at her home.

But this was not always so.

The water turned bad about three decades ago, during an era when local mines were closing. “It would come and go,” Beavers recalled. “You’d go two or three days with clear water, maybe low pressure. And then all of a sudden it would be running out almost thick as mud.”

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