Former EL water foreman tasked with running upgraded Chester water plant
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CHESTER – City Mayor Ed Wedgewood and new municipal Water and Sewer Superintendent Michael Ryan are optimistic about their ability to help lead Chester into the future with the help of state and federal officials.
Shortly after officials received word that the state of West Virginia would underwrite the majority of Chester's $833,333 share of its $2.5 million water treatment plant renovation, Ryan made his way over from across the river to Chester for the newly-filled position.
Ryan has spent almost four dozen years working in water treatment and distribution, including 21 years during his naval service and the last 24 with East Liverpool.
According to Wedgewood, the city's plant hadn't seen any kind of work for the past 40 years. Chester has forwarded its submitted bids for engineering to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping to complete the project hopefully by fall 2024.
The February train derailment in East Palestine proved to bring attention to the city's plight regarding its water plant. After Wedgewood contacted West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's pleading for assistance, top officials took notice as Chester was one of many West Virginia cities, which sourced their water either out of the Ohio River or from an aquifer underneath it, and there was fears of possibly contamination from the derailment.
He looked to U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney for support when requesting the funding for the water plant project. "The City of Chester (has been running) in an operational deficiency mode, because the system is operating only on one pump, when the standard for peak performance and failure redundancy is multiple pumps. The system is also (a)erating on a 1970s filtration system and is not supplying the most efficient filtering of media currently."
The vast number of municipal water systems affected by the derailment were able to remove any extra pollutants through either adjusting their chemicals or filtering with media; however, due to its aging system, Chester found itself limited in what it could do.
Mooney also drew attention to the "obsolete and mechanically-exhausted valves incorporated in the pipe delivery system that need to be replaced."
Among the upgrades, the city hopes to replace 61 valves in addition to several tanks within the plant as part of the project, modernizing its filtration system, replacing the roof and installing additional Variable Frequent Drives (VFDs), which would allow operators to adjust the pump speed as needed, potentially saving energy.
The main saving grace for Chester was that it draws its raw water from an aquifer located under the Ohio River unlike the others sourcing directly from the Ohio and necessating the extra attention.
Wedgewood acknowledged, "We have been asking a lot of our water distribution system and employees.The water plant has reached the end of its life. This definitely is long overdue."
Ryan is fully embracing the challenge he has found in Chester. When he left East Liverpool, where he was a foreman for their water system and its 5,000 customers.
However, he finds himself heading both water and sewer in Chester, which has 1,500 customers throughout the city and Lawrenceville in comparison
Ryan said that he hopes to point Wedgewood in the right direction, so the city can apply for additional grants to help fund upgrades to the sewer plant too.
"I like what Mike is doing so far. Not only were we able to form a chain of command (within the departments), the employees seem to be more productive later," Wedgewood added.
The entire municipal water system continues to be under a precautionary boil order, as city officials await for that state to release its 2024 testing schedule for operators. Ryan said that his Ohio water certification was just renewed but is not valid in West Virginia, which will require him to retest in 2024 for West Virginia.
State officials have approached Chester for a few suggested dates that local candidates, like Ryan, would be able to potentially take the test locally to assist with the process.