Chester, Lawrenceville water customers under boil order until further notice

CHESTER -- The cavalry is on its way in regards to the Chester water plant -- but it cannot be soon enough.

Next month, council is expected to award an engineering bid to initiate a multimillion dollar-funded upgrade to its city water plant after hiring a new plant supervisor early this month. However, city officials requested Saturday that their water customers within Chester and the adjacent Lawrenceville, which they also service, boil their water until further notice due to a manpower issue.

According to a post on the city's social media presence, the plant is currently without a certified Class II operator, which is required to pump water. The city's water source is the Ohio River. "The water itself is still safe to consume," the post read.

That operator, who was unidentified, resigned and currently the city only has Class I water operators on staff to run the facility, necessitating the precautionary boil order.

Chester Mayor Ed Wedgewood explained Sunday that they are working closely with the state to resolve any certification issue. This month Michael Ryan had been hired from the city of East Liverpool to fill the supervisor vacancy; however, his certification from the State of Ohio hadn't transferred over.

According to the water Certification and Training Program posted on the state website, the state administers two exams annually in each district plus two additional central locations, giving applicants a dozen changes to take the exam.

It appears to be only two more exams scheduled for this year on Nov. 8 in Kearneysville, W.Va. and Dec. 8 in Fairmont, W.Va. C&T must receive an exam application from each individual 30 days prior but not later than five days prior to the exam date and location for registration. Applicants will receive written confirmation. There will be no extra exams or walk-ins at the examination sites per the Environmental Health Services' section of the state's website.

"Again, the system itself is operating normally and is safe to consume. We are just following guidelines put into place by the state of WV," city officials explain in their social media post. "We do apologize for the situation and we are working with the board of health to resolve the licensing issue. We expect the situation to be resolved in the coming days, but there is no defined timeline in place. We have full confidence in our staff to maintain the water system as normal."

There is no dates on the website regarding potential 2024 exam dates.

According to comments made earlier this summer when West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was in the city for the check presentation, Chester's water filtration hadn't seen upgrades in five decades and, and potential water contamination of the city's water source became apparent in February when the East Palestine train derailment happened. Many communities who had water intakes along the river were able to remove the contamination from municipal water supplies with adjustments to their processing; however, Chester was not one on them.

The upgrades to the system are expected to cost more than $2.5 million.