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This article is the opinion of David Riffle


Sewer Plant woes - engineering vs. hillbilly engineering

Was an Indian once buried in this mound of dirt in Millwood, West Virginia? No, not to my knowledge, but a public water line was buried here many years ago. The mound of dirt is located about 900 feet north of the Route 2 / Route 62 intersection in Millwood, West Virginia. (See photo below).

The mound of dirt highlights a good example of what I will call "hillbilly engineering", because the water line was laid with the lay of the land, instead of with the lay of the road. The specifications may have called for 36 inches of dirt to cover the water line, but the specifications should have stated that it be buried at least 36 inches below the surface of the road so that future landowners could make a road entrance into their property if they wished (pretty much common sense). Yes, the water line was laid on state property, but what good is property if you can't get to it via the state-right-of-way. After all, if you can't move any dirt to get into your property, then the result is about the same as if there was a 50 foot tall fence there.

Several years ago the Cottageville Public Service District (the local water company) wanted to build a sewer facility on my property in Millwood not far from the Route 2 / Route 62 intersection. In November, 1995, I had a meeting with them and the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Council to discuss the issue. I told them that there must be a better location, and I remember asking them "Do you want to make Millwood look like Ravenswood?....meaning the first thing you see when entering the town is a sewer lagoon. Their reply was "it won't be a sewer lagoon, it will be underground". In any case, they did find a different location, about 500 feet from the rear of my property, but I still have to listen to the noise daily now from the industrial motors at the sewer facility. Perhaps even worse than the noise for me is the looks of the facility….no it isn't underground as they had told me it was going to be! (See Photo 2 and Photo 3 below).

In addition, one of the small white buildings at the facility (forefront in the above photo) looks like it got its design from an old-fashioned "outhouse". As you can see from the above photo, the entire sewer facility is an engineering marvel….it looks like they built the main building and then eventually got enough money to build on the porch addition....what a beauty!). And the cost of the project to serve just over 200 residents and the industrial park was well over $2,000,000.00 according to their sign. (See photo below). Where did all of the money go? Millwood is relatively flat land, and is pretty much just sandy soil.....just think about what the price must have been if they had to dig through hills and solid rock like in much of Jackson County.

About 2 or 3 years ago the Cottageville Public Service District was granted a 28% sewer rate hike for Millwood's residents (even though the sewer facility was just about 3 years old at that time....virtually brand new and still likely under warranty by the contractor)? Did someone goof on the expected operating costs and income projections for the sewer facility? Was any miscalculation (if there was one) deliberate just to be able to get the sewer project going? Obviously we will never know, but it does seem to me that someone is "flushing" our money! Did you also know that Millwood's residents are supposedly funding $10,000.00 for a feasibility study for the Phase II Cottageville sewer expansion? I'm not sure why they needed another $10,000.00 for a study, because in 1995 (at the meeting) they gave me a photocopy of a sewer line layout that already showed it going through my property in Evergreen Hills, which is for the Phase III project. (It seems to me this feasibility study is just another "flush" of our money, and why should Millwood's residents have to pay for it?).

The moral to this story is "If the water company didn't have funds to lay the water lines deep enough on the state-right-of-way and if they didn't have funds to build anything more than an "eye-sore" for a sewer facility, then why did they build anything at all? As the old saying goes "If you can't do something right, then don't do it at all!" In the third-world, lack of design is often a sign of corruption. In this case though, I'll just call it a case of "hillbilly engineering". Obviously it is no state-of-the-art facility!

Since webpages are spidered by search engines, I would like to invite the population of California, New York, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, etc. to look at the sewer plant photos (Photo 2 and Photo 3 above) with amusement. Of those of you who are business owners, when you see such an engineering feat, I hope you will ask yourself "Why would I want to do business there"? Believe it or not, the sewer plant serves the local industrial park nearby....and that is where this "industrial" sewer plant should have been built, instead of in the area residents faces.

The article above is the opinion of David Riffle