Clean Water Funding Approved for Southeast Ohio Communities

Clean Water Funding Approved for Southeast Ohio Communities

Ohio’s Controlling Board approved $65 million in DuPont settlement funds to support clean water efforts near the company’s Washington Works facility along the Ohio-West Virginia border. The settlement stems from a lawsuit alleging DuPont released PFOA into the air and Ohio River from its Washington Works facility in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The funding will be distributed to Belmont, Gallia, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan, and Washington counties for local drinking water infrastructure projects in more than a dozen communities. 
For townships and other local communities in the affected region, the projects may help develop new drinking water sources, connect smaller water systems to larger regional systems, install PFAS treatment infrastructure, and connect private wells with PFAS detections to nearby public water systems. 
State officials said many of the projects are expected to be fully funded through the settlement, helping communities address contamination without additional costs to local utilities. 

This first appeared in the July/August 2026 issue of the Ohio Township News magazine. Contact the OTA at communications@ohiotownships.org to submit your township stories.