An Ominous Timeline in Paden City

PCHS Timeline

1949-52

The Wetzel County Board of Education voted 3-2 to give Magnolia High School students who lived in Paden City their own high school. Paden City High School opened in 1951 and graduated its first class in 1952. The Paden City Colored School merged into PCHS that same year, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court mandated school integration.

1975

Jan. 8: Faulty lighting equipment started a fire in the auditorium of Paden City High School. The oldest part of the building had to be razed. Students took classes in various buildings around town. Reconstruction of the school began soon after rumors circulated that Wetzel County might not rebuild it.

1977

May 1: Paden City High School reopened. “It [became] the new landmark in Paden City and to this day continues to be a source of community pride,” the Tyler Star News reported on the 40^th anniversary of the fire that destroyed part of the school.

2009

Oct. 19: Amid rumors of PCHS being targeted for closure, legendary college football coaches Don Nehlen of West Virginia University and Bob Pruett of Marshall visited Paden City and praised PCHS. “The one rallying point you have here is your high school athletics,” Nehlen said. “When that disappears, your town disappears.”

2010

March 25: The Wetzel County Board of Education met at Paden City High School to get citizen input on a plan to close PCHS as part of a 10-year Comprehensive Education Facilities Plan.

April 19: The board voted unanimously to remove the call to close PCHS from its facilities plan.

2016

June 27: The Wetzel County Board of Education hired PCHS alum Ed Toman as the new school superintendent. The board later extended Toman’s one-year contract another four years. His hiring ended a tumultuous two-year stretch where one superintendent was arrested in a prostitution sting and his replacement agreed to a contract buyout after one year.

2017

July 26: The Tyler Star News reported on multiple investments at Paden City High School in an article headlined “PCHS’ Future Looks Bright.”

2019

March 4: Town Mayor Clyde Hochstrasser publicly revealed that the town’s water wells and drinking water contained PCE. The mayor said the chemical’s presence in the water was not too far above EPA standards and was being “blown out of proportion.”

2021

Feb. 11: The Wetzel County Board of Education voted 3-2 not to renew Ed Toman’s contract as superintendent. Tammy Wells replaced Toman later that year and served in the role until Porter became superintendent on July 1, 2023.

2023

July 5: The board discussed multiple potential options for consolidating schools. Neither Porter, who became the superintendent on July 1, nor any board members suggested merging Paden City High School with Magnolia High School.

Aug. 7: Lawyer Richard Boothby briefed the school board on options to reconfigure Wetzel County schools. The idea of merging PCHS and Magnolia still was not broached.

Aug. 14: Superintendent Porter ignored the ideas for school reconfiguration that board members discussed and sought permission to collect data about sending PCHS students to Magnolia High School (grades 9-12) and New Martinsville School (grades 7-8). The board tabled the request on a procedural technicality that allowed Porter to revive it.

Aug. 28: The Wetzel County board met at Magnolia High School because of an expected overflow crowd of PCHS supporters upset about Porter’s push to close PCHS.

Aug. 31: The EPA confirmed with state officials that both the elementary and high schools in Paden City were warned not to consume the city’s water.

Sept. 11: Paden City native Brian Price, a former school board member and president, filled a vacancy left by Robert Christen. Sometime between the Aug. 14 and Aug. 28 meetings, Christen resigned over alleged threats that he and his family received.

Sept. 25: Porter revived her push to close Paden City High School. The board rejected it on a 5-0 vote after Price and board member Jim Glasscock questioned the plan.

2024

Feb. 27: The Wetzel County Board of Education voted 5-0 to give Porter a three-year contract extension. Her one-year contract that ended June 30 paid $130,000. That increased to $142,500 on July 1; it will jump to $151,050 next year and $160,113 for the 2026-27 school year.

April 3: Porter and school board members discussed the implications of PCHS being above a Superfund site. The state Board of Education asked 10 questions to county school officials, a committee of whom met April 11 to plan a response. Mountain State Spotlight reported on the Paden City Superfund site April 17.

May 14: Wetzel County voters re-elected two board members (Brian Castilow and Linda Fonner) and elected one new one (Christine Mitchell). Paden City resident and PCHS defender Linda Stillwagner finished fourth in a race where the top three vote-getters won. Jim Glasscock and Christine Nice have two years left in their terms.

June 11: Porter notified PCHS staff and students that they would be “temporarily” merged with Magnolia High School and New Martinsville School.

June 12: Porter explained in a Facebook video why she decided to close PCHS. The EPA, a federal agency, took the unusual step of refuting Porter’s reasoning in a national statement. Supporters of PCHS protested outside the Wetzel County Schools office.

June 13: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito defended Porter’s decision to close PCHS. “If I had a child in that school,” she said, “that would worry me every day.”

June 14: The West Virginia Department of Education endorsed Porter’s decision to close PCHS. Paden City Mayor Steve Kastigar condemned her attack on Paden City and scheduled a town meeting for June 16.

June 15: A day before the town meeting, Paden City certified its local election results. Kastigar lost his bid for re-election and immediately resigned so new Mayor Clyde Hochstrasser could lead efforts to save PCHS. Hochstrasser first served as mayor when the water crisis surfaced. The newspaper in Wheeling, West Virginia, defended Porter in an editorial.

June 16: Paden City residents held a town hall meeting to discuss options for trying to keep PCHS students in town instead of moving them to schools in New Martinsville.

June 20: The Wetzel Chronicle published an interview between Porter and Chuck Clegg, a columnist who has long pushed for school consolidation in Wetzel County.

June 25: The Wetzel County Board of Education discussed the closure of PCHS and heard the objections of PCHS alumni and Paden City residents.

June 26: Supporters of PCHS started a Change.org petition to remove Porter from her job as superintendent.

PCE Timeline

1969

Band Box Cleaners opened circa 1969 on Fourth Avenue, the main highway through Paden City. The business was located on the same block as PCHS, and its primary customers included band students who had their uniforms cleaned regularly during marching season each fall. Two other shops, Budd Cleaners and Rockwell Cleaners, also once operated on Fourth Avenue.

1997

Band Box Cleaners closed, according to a 2024 U.S. government report that explained the eventual role of the dry-cleaning business in contaminating the town’s water.

2000

Paden City built a water treatment plant that included three air strippers to remove carbon dioxide, minerals and other contaminants from its water supply.

2003

November: The West Virginia Bureau of Public Health preventatively assessed Paden City’s water source and suggested ways to improve it.

2010

During routine monitoring, Paden City first detected the toxic chemical perchloroethylene in its water distribution system. Also known as tetrachloroethylene (and by the abbreviations PCE, PERC and TCE), the chemical was commonly used in dry cleaning for decades.

2013

The levels of PCE in Paden City’s water increased noticeably. It was only 5.6 parts per billion in 2010, slightly higher than the EPA maximum of 5.0, but jumped to 9.92 parts per billion in September 2013 and 49.6 parts per billion in one well a month later. The city closed that well.

2016

The PCE level dropped in the well Paden City had closed, so the city briefly reopened it to provide water while performing general maintenance on another well.

2018

November-December: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessed the threat of PCE in Paden City’s groundwater. This EPA assessment was considered non-critical. It identified the former Band Box Cleaners as the likely source of the groundwater contamination.

2019

March 27: Environmental activist Erin Brockovich shared a story about Paden City’s water problems on Facebook. Julia Roberts played Brockovich in a movie about the paralegal uncovering a groundwater scandal in California.

2020

January: Paden City residents created the Paden City Water Crisis group on Facebook (related page) to provide bottled water, collect health information and advocate for change. Leaders of the group have worked with the Thriving Earth Exchange.

Feb. 4: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in Paden City because of high PCE levels.

Feb. 19: Paden City broke ground on a new stripper system to lower PCE levels.

Feb. 27: The EPA re-assessed the Paden City groundwater site to determine its eligibility for inclusion on the Superfund National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites.

March: The city tried using mobile water tanks over several days but stopped using them because of complaints about the water quality and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sept. 22: The U.S. Agriculture Department approved a $4.8 million loan and $365,000 grant to build one water storage tank and rehabilitate two other tanks to tackle the PCE problem.

November: The EPA tested the soil beneath PCHS and the air inside and outside the school to gauge the potential for vapor intrusion from PCE. The EPA concluded that any vapors present at PCHS “do not present unacceptable risk to the occupants.”

2021

March 30: Sen. Shelley Moore Capito toured Paden City’s new water treatment facility. She and other West Virginians in Congress helped secure millions of dollars in grants and loans to improve the city’s water and sewage systems.

April 18: Paden City Mayor Rick Casteel died. At an April 23 emergency meeting, the city council appointed Councilman Steve Kastigar as interim mayor.

Sept. 9: After a site inspection from March 2020 to February 2021, the EPA proposed that Paden City be added to the Superfund priorities list (see related fact sheet).

Oct. 19, 21: The EPA held virtual meetings with Paden City residents.

2022

March 16: The EPA added Paden City to the Superfund national priorities list. The agency currently scores the site as a 50 on its Hazard Ranking System, meaning that it poses a moderate risk to human health and the environment. Scores less than 20 are considered low, and scores higher than 70 are considered high. The EPA started its remedial site investigation June 30.

Dec. 14: The EPA updated its overall analysis of the health risks posed by PCE, concluding that the chemical “presents an unreasonable risk of injury to human health” in almost every use. The change isn’t directly relevant to groundwater contamination or vapor intrusion from PCE but indicates increasing government concern about the chemical.

2023

June 16: The EPA proposed a nationwide 10-year phaseout of PCE in dry cleaning.

July 19: Paden City discovered 30 parts per billion of PCE in its water. The EPA-approved maximum is 5 parts per billion. Over the next several weeks, the EPA worked with the city to sample the groundwater repeatedly and in multiple locations. PCE levels remained high.

Aug. 16: The West Virginia Office of Environmental Health Services ordered Paden City residents not to drink or use the city’s water. The city distributed bottled water to residents until the city supply was cleaned. PCHS also used bottled water. A week later, Gov. Justice addressed Paden City’s water situation in a briefing.

Sept. 1: Paden City residents complained to city council about the water problems. From this date through Nov. 27, the EPA collected 10 more water samples. All of them but one (at only one residential building) showed PCE levels within the acceptable range.

Sept. 12: The West Virginia Department of Health lifted its do-not-consume notice for the drinking water in Paden City. The city water department provided instructions for citizens to flush their water lines.

Nov. 3: Based on the recommendation of its legal staff, the West Virginia Public Service Commission opened a “distressed utility” investigation into Paden City’s water system. The city contested the PSC legal team’s conclusion in a Nov. 17 response.

Nov. 14: The EPA held a public meeting at Paden City High School.

2024

Jan. 29: The PSC held a field hearing in Paden City to discuss whether the city’s water system qualifies as a distressed or failing utility (hearing transcript, public comments). The hearing followed Jan. 4 testimony by PSC experts who said the water and sewer systems in Paden City are not financially distressed or failing.

Jan. 31: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a health consultation about the 2023 water crisis. The agency concluded that the spike in PCE probably wouldn’t hurt people who unwittingly drank it and that any related vapor intrusion into PCHS “is not expected to result in harmful health effects” (related fact sheet).

May 7: In response to a new commission order, WVPSC staff explored potential alternate water sources for Paden City. The report found that “both Paden City and New Martinsville have challenges with water supplies which must be addressed.”

June 25: The he WVPSC ordered Paden City to keep monitoring the presence of PCE in its water supply and to report the results to citizens immediately in their billing statements.