Drinking Water Safety

Several communities in West Virginia's southern coalfields celebrated the completion of a long awaited project to bring clean water to local communities last week.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking with the creators of the “Black in Appalachia” podcast about their recent mountain road trip through the coalfields. Also in this episode, we learn about how debates over LGBTQ issues are playing out on the Qualla Boundary, in Western North Carolina. The Eastern Band of Cherokee doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. But some LGBTQ members have spent the last several months trying to change that.

The West Virginia Rivers Coalition has planted nearly 900 trees and shrubs to protect the drinking water in the Harpers Ferry community. The area, known as a riparian buffer, was planted along the Elk’s Run Watershed, which provides residents of the Jefferson County towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar with clean drinking water. It is also the only stream in the county that provides water to a municipality and drinking water to thousands of Harpers Ferry residents and tourists.

A McDowell County food pantry is teaming up with a non-profit called Dig Deep in order to bring residents clean drinking water.

Lots of rural communities in Appalachia also have unsafe drinking water. This week on Inside Appalachia, we’ll hear from people in Appalachia who are trying to bring clean drinking water to their friends and neighbors. President Joe Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” includes billions of dollars that would go to fixing water systems, but will it be enough to fix the underlying issues? And will it make a difference in the lives of the poorest, most vulnerable people?

West Virginia has been awarded a federal grant that aims to improve water quality in the state, which has been rated one of the worst in the nation.

A Department of Health and Human Resources official says the agency might need additional funding to implement new drinking water safety legislation.The…