I oppose HB 4156. I believe that where sewer systems are available, buildings should be required to connect with the sewer system. Public health is protected, and sewer waste is efficient removed and retreated - not just left in septic systems or elsewhere. Best Mike Jones

I respectfully ask you to put every effort into bringing forth for hearings HB 4460 and making every effort into the passage of this bill. This would correct a terrible situation that has been perpetrated against our citizens for many years by some of our current state laws. For decades, our citizens have been burdened by state code (namely 8-1-22 & 16-13A-9) that are unfair, probably illegal and possibly unconstitutional. These laws force WV citizens to both pay for a service (public sewage) that they may not need, want or use. There is no service or product that I can think of, either private or public that the government dictates that a citizen must use. This would be the same as a store dropping an appliance off at your house and forcing you to now use and pay for it whether you want, need or will use it.  This would not only be unfair but illegal, yet that is exactly what is happening in our state. Another part of the current laws that are completely unfair to the affected citizens is that they must discontinue using and render inoperable their present sewage system. This is regardless that they have paid for the system nor whether it is operating properly or not. And they are not being reimbursed for the destruction of this private property they have paid for with their hard earned dollars. In my opinion this may also be in violation of our rights under the 5^th Amendment of our Constitution which, in part, states “Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Home owners pay thousands of dollars for a septic system, many may still be paying on the cost thru their home mortgage. And now the government comes in and dictates that you must now pay thousands more for a service (plus pay a monthly fee) whether you want, need or will use the service? Please stop this grave injustice. Thank you for your attention and efforts into this matter. Norman Launi Sr.   Keyser, WV

I am submitting this public comment regarding House Bill 4537 (2026 Regular Session) to formally place my documented research, FOIA findings, and personal health impacts into the legislative record. HB 4537 would require municipalities and public service districts to calculate the cost of extending water service, apply for funding through the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council, and extend service to additional customers when grants are awarded and required deposits are paid. While expanding access to water service is important, this bill advances infrastructure expansion without addressing the statutory and regulatory failures that allow unsafe or inadequately protected water to be delivered under current law. West Virginians already pay twice for clean water: • through taxes that fund environmental regulation, public health oversight, and enforcement, and • through monthly water bills paid to regulated water utilities whose legal duty is to treat and deliver safe drinking water. Despite this, residents across the state are repeatedly advised to rely on household water filters due to ongoing water quality concerns. Filters are not free, require ongoing replacement, are not affordable for many households, and are not an equitable substitute for safe public water. Shifting responsibility to residents is not a solution and is not what taxpayers or ratepayers are paying for. HB 4537 operates within an existing statutory framework that emphasizes administrative compliance and infrastructure financing rather than health-protective outcomes, including: • W. Va. Code § 16-1-9A, which focuses on source water protection planning and assessment but does not require enforceable contaminant reduction; • W. Va. Code § 16-13-1 et seq. and § 16-13A-1 et seq., which govern public water systems and public service districts but rely almost entirely on federal Safe Drinking Water Act minimums that are compliance-based rather than health-protective; • W. Va. Code § 22-11-1 et seq., which allows reliance on running annual averages, masks peak contaminant levels, and permits repeated exceedances before enforcement; • the Lead and Copper Rule as adopted by West Virginia, which relies on an action level rather than a health-safe standard despite acknowledgment that no level of lead exposure is safe; and • the PFAS Protection Act, which requires monitoring and planning but does not impose enforceable removal standards or health-protective limits. Through multiple FOIA requests and public records, I documented contaminants in local and regional water systems, including PFAS, disinfection byproducts such as TTHMs and HAAs, hexavalent chromium, lead, and radiological contaminants. I compared those documented exposure pathways with my own medical laboratory trends to assess biological plausibility. That analysis shows patterns consistent with chronic low-dose chemical exposure, including liver stress indicators, thyroid-axis disruption, and kidney filtration changes. I am not alleging definitive causation and I am not making a medical diagnosis; I am documenting that my health data aligns with exposure pathways that current statutes explicitly allow. HB 4537 would require water systems to expand service without strengthening health-protective standards, without requiring contaminant reduction prior to expansion, without addressing affordability and equity impacts, and without correcting transparency and oversight gaps. Expanding infrastructure under these conditions expands exposure rather than protection. Telling residents to use filters transfers responsibility from the state and regulated utilities to individuals, imposes ongoing costs many cannot afford, fails to address all contaminants, and creates unequal protection based on income. Clean water should not depend on personal purchasing power. Before advancing HB 4537, the Legislature should tie infrastructure expansion to health-protective contaminant standards, require plain-language disclosure of cumulative and chronic exposure risks, prohibit reliance on running averages without peak-value transparency, address the affordability and equity impacts of filtration-based approaches, and require independent public-health review when contaminants exceed recognized health-based goals. Compliance does not equal safety. Infrastructure does not equal protection. Water policy is health policy. My health, and the health of West Virginians across this state, should not be an acceptable cost of regulatory convenience.