The Monongalia County Commission created Clay Battelle Public Service District (CBPSD) on November 6, 1967 with the signatures of 133 property owners and the persistent work of the three founding boardmembers: Joseph Higgins, Lindsday Johnson & Maxine Statler and a few other community members. The dedication of the system was on July 29, 1978 at the Olive United Methodist Church. The original system went to bid as a $2,743,000 project consisting of 6 storage tanks, approximately 81 miles of line and about 800 customers. As part of the funding, a 40 year loan was obtained in 1979 from the Farmer's Home Administration in the amount of $1,154,000 (5% interest and paid in full 10/18/11) and the balance of the funding was largely grants. The system almost failed to go through because there was a shortage of $220,000 for construction and all avenues for funding had been exhausted and it was just days before the contractors no longer had to honor the bid quotes. The Monongalia County Commission was able to secure a line of credit to cover short fall to allow the Farmer's Home Adminstration to approve the start of construction.
There have been several smaller system system upgrades and line extensions over the years. In November 2011- a 10 year $450,000 loan was secured for a meter replacement project. It was a complete system replacement with smart meters that utilitizes a drive-by system. The meters are very accurate, have a low failure rate, provides the abilitity to track water loss more quickly, among other benefits. The system reduced the time it took from reading meter from 5-7 days to 1 day and has almost eliminated the need to estimate meter readings because of weather. The loan was paid off in Aug. 2019.
In 2014-2016, CBPSD undertook a major system upgrade. The project included telemetry, mandatory fencing of all storage tanks, replacement of the Core pump station, flow meters to better track and reduce water loss, painting of some storage tanks, replacement of two altitude stations, an office/shop location in the service area, two small line extensions, some main line replacement and some upsizing, a new larger storage tank in Wadestown, permanent mount generators at three booster stations, updated system mapping, travel generator and some valve replacements. The project was made possible with two loans that total $5,379,958 ($1.5 million - 3% / 20 years and $3,879,958 - 1% / 30 years). CBPSD was not eligible for any grant funding.
As of September 2019, CBPSD service area consist of approximately 112 miles of main line that ranges from 10" to 1" ; 8 storage tanks with capacity of 1,108,000 gallons; 8 pumping booster stations; 2 altitude stations; and we average 1628 customers.
