CHARLESTON, WV – On Thursday, the Public Service Commission of West Virginia launched a general investigation into a water line break and natural gas outage that affected hundreds of customers in Charleston.
On Nov. 10 a widespread natural gas outage occurred, that has left hundreds of customers of Mountaineer Gas Company on Charleston’s west side without service. On the same day, there were several water main breaks on the West Virginia-American Water Company lines in the same area. The water main breaks caused outages for many customers and required boil water advisories to be issued.
Commission staff has been ordered to investigate the cause of the water main breaks and the gas outage. Within 20 days of Thursday’s order, staff will make recommendations for information and evidence that West Virginia-American Water and Mountaineer Gas will be required to file formally with the Commission. The utilities will then have five days to respond to those recommendations. The Commission will establish further proceedings after the information has been filed.
“We want to see this matter resolved as safely and as quickly as possible,” said PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane.
Additional information may be found on the Commission’s website www.psc.state.wv.us by referencing Case No. 23-0882-G-W-GI.