By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
tribune staff writer

KEYSER — The Keyser City Council voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to join a coalition of panhandle communities that have banded together to lobby for state assistance in meeting federal sewage treatment requirements related to improving the quality of the Chesapeake Bay.
City officials met last week with an attorney from Charleston-based Steptoe and Johnson who is spearheading the coalition’s formation. As part of joining the other communities, the city will pay the law firm $1,000 a month over the next 30 months, while the campaign unfolds.
The coalition that is being formed includes Mountain
State communities within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed – including Charles Town and Martinsburg — that are being required to upgrade their sewage treatment facilities as part of federal and regional efforts to clean up the Bay. Specifically, the treatment plants are being updated to provide enhanced removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, pollutants that spur the growth of algae and rob water of oxygen, harming aquatic life.
In Keyser, those upgrades will cost up to $8 million, with much of the expense passed on to users of the system — namely, Keyser taxpayers.
Members of the coalition argue that the burden for the upgrades should be borne statewide, and not confined to communities within the Bay watershed.
In making the motion to join the coalition, Councilman Dave Sowers said the potential payoff for the city was well worth the $1,000 monthly retainer.
“I’d spend $30,000 any day to save eight million bucks,” he said.
In other water-related business, the council gave the OK for Region 8 Director Ken Dyche to advertise for a team of accountants and attorneys to shepherd the city’s planned water-plant project through the state approval process. The proposed new water plant is expected to cost at least $9 million.
“You’re a t a point where you need professional assistance,” Dyche said in submitting the advertisement for the council’s approval.
As part of the planning for the a new water plant, the city council is to meet Monday at 4 p.m. with representatives of West Virginia American Water, a private company that owns and operates water and sewer systems in the state serving 581,000 people. The city of Fayetteville, with a water system serving about half of Keyser’s 4,000 customers,  just last month completed the sale of its water and sewer systems to the company.
Councilman Ed Miller said he is a long way from being prepared to sell the city’s water system, even in the face of the need for a new water plant. “It’s going to take a hell of a lot for me to sell, but I want to talk to them anyway,” he said.
Sowers said he agreed with Miller.
Beyond Monday’s special meeting, the city council will next meet in regular session Monday, Oct. 27 at 4:30 p.m.