Commissioner Lupardus Address & Response to the Mt. Zion Public Service District Secretary

Following Monday’s (August 10th, 2026) Commission Meeting, Commissioner Eric Lupardus contacted the Secretary of the Board of the Mt. Zion Public Service District (PSD), Mr. Aryeh White regarding PSD issues and violations. Below is the conversation between the two. Including a list of those violations.

Amid the conversation Commissioner Lupardus provided to the Board a list of recent violations that are unaddressed by the Mt. Zion PSD and requested their response as to the intent of public notification.

Mr. White’s response was not one of accountability, but rather of comparison to the previous sins of past operators and that “by comparison” the system is much better, even providing the percentage. What Mr. White did not address was the fact that there are still violations, including that of e Coli.

In my commentary of a letter from Jason Firestine, a response of Commissioner Lupardus on Thursday, August 14th, 2026 I shared my frustration with what “I” considered to be a failure on the part of the County Commission in dealing with the accountability of the Public Service Districts to the public they serve. Needless to say, that created some commentary phone calls.

Today I will clarify my stance on my own frustration. I will stand flat footed and eye to eye and say that the current County Commission has by far accomplished more than any previous Commission that I have personally been involved with in my 46 years of voting. And I do understand that the current Commission cannot simply “fire” board members without just cause and an appeal to a Judge. With that being said…The Calhoun County Commission is our only avenue of action. Now, it’s been said that I should attend Mt. Zion PSD meetings, and that I have personally missed meetings where the Commission addressed PSD problems. That is also true. But the current status of my ability to attend any meeting is not possible with the responsibility I have of the care for my 90 year old mother and is likely the case for most citizens of this county. Therefore, I lay the charge back to the Commission. I do not as a citizen have authority over the PSD boards. Nor do I have the ability to not pay my water bill, even if I’m drinking E. coli. That will get my water shut off.

That hardly seems fair.

All that, to say this about the conversation below between Commissioner Lupardus and Aryeh White. Commissioner Lupardus addressed the issue I questioned. The ball went into the court of the Mt. Zion PSD which fluffed it off and made very light of a serious matter. Not fully addressed is the fact that the Mt. Zion PSD management has created a volatile work environment that has made it impossible for good citizens, desiring to help, to stay on. The Mt. Zion PSD has ran off board members and staff. The drama created is another embarrassing attribute to the community of good citizens not willing to join in. So volunteerism, or even paid staff refuse to become a part of it.

I have received multiple comments from community members, some good, some poor. Trashing anyone will not make progress, it only makes things stink. At this point, my request now goes to the public. We need good, community members with “people skills, communication ability, and capable of holding themselves accountable for a job the public has entrusted them to do.” I know it’s a lot. I know the pay isn’t worth it. But Calhoun County, West Virginia is one of the greatest places on earth. Minus a few poorly behaved people. Please consider helping if you are so inclined.

I and Commissioner Lupardus had a conversation yesterday. There was no yelling or name calling. We did not 100% agree with each other, nor did we resolve every issue we had.

But I’m still here. In Calhoun County, and I’m still going to ask questions. Even if it’s from a keyboard. Do you have questions? Better yet… do you have ideas?

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Letter from Commissioner Lupardus to the Mt. Zion PSD Board members.

Dear Mt. Zion PSD Board,

At our last County Commission meeting, citizens raised concerns regarding the safety of their water. One resident shared the attached list of violations that Mt. Zion is currently facing.

Please respond by the end of the business day on Wednesday, August 12th, to confirm whether these violations have been closed. If they are resolved, please provide documentation as proof.

Additionally, please clarify the following points:

• Will Mt. Zion be applying for a line replacement project for the Millstone area to address the frequent leaks?
• What are the plans and schedule for repairing the leak at the “Y” intersection?
• Does the PSD plan to address these violations publicly?

Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Best regards,

Eric J. Lupardus

Calhoun Co. Commissioner

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Hon. Comm’r Lupardus,

Our water is safer today than it has been in the last eleven years. In analyzing eleven years of violations it is fair to say that the Mount Zion PSD has had a higher rate of violations than neighboring systems.

For the eleven complete calendar years from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2025, Mount Zion PSD recorded 283 violations, an average of approximately 2.14 violations per month. During the same period, Pleasant Hill PSD recorded 155 violations, or approximately 1.17 per month, while Grantsville Municipal recorded 30 violations, or approximately 0.23 per month. That pattern continued into early 2026. From January 14, 2025 through April 8, 2026, Mount Zion recorded 46 violations beginning during that period, an average of approximately 3.11 violations per month.

On April 8, 2026 Chief Operator Trenten Cunningham resigned without warning, succeeded in this office by Jacob Bunner. Since this transition Mount Zion PSD has not had a single additional violation.

All violations are necessarily addressed publicly.

The resolution of any violation requires public notice. All violations letters include a date by which customers must be informed. To reduce the expenses we would be required to pass along to our customers we send out notices to the public in batches. Our remaining open violations are awaiting the next batch.

The status of all violations, resolved and unresolved, may be found on the West Virginia Department ot Health’s Drinking water Viewer. There are a number of violations for which we completed every step on our end for their resolution which were not processed as resolved by the Department of Health. This is an ongoing issue many systems have with that Department and the typical means to resolve it are to send out a second notice to the customers in the next batch and fax proof a second time to the Department.

As we stated publicly previously, the leak at the Arnoldsburg Y is our second priority for repair after a larger leak at Sand Ridge that is not visible from the road. We are committed to resolving both leaks before winter. We are coordinating with Rural Water, the WU’s ACTAT Office, and Potesta Engineering to develop a plan to address these two difficult leaks.

The WVU Extension Office has begun work on a current Asset Management Plan as we pursue emergency funding sources to resolve these leaks.

Regarding the problematic stretch of main on 119/33, we are facing an uphill battle for evidence that it requires replacement decades before its design life is exhausted. We have implemented procedures for enhanced recordkeeping regarding this stretch to be able to demonstrate conclusively to potential funding sources the necessity of this project, but this is an ongoing effort that will likely require months before we can reasonably expect to prevail in securing such funding.

By the way, our Chief Operator is now Mike

Hersman. The papers were filed with the state today to have been effective the 4th inst.

Yours,

A. White

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Mr White,

Just to clarify, are you statements in your response email public information?

Eric J. Lupardus

Calhoun Co. Commissioner

elupardus@prime-energyllc.com

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Hon. Commr Lupardus,

The majority of my email was data analysıs on publicly available intormation. The balance was contained in their entirety in public remarks, in and out of public meetings.

I do want to make one small correction in regards to the prior email. For four consecutive quarters in late 2015 and early 2016, as well as isolated quarters in 2021, 2022, and 2023, there were 0 violations. I would, instead, argue that our water is the safest it has been since that stretch ending in early 2016.

With that caveat, I am comfortable with this email being shared publicly.

Yours

A.White

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