Above: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out sanitation projects all across the United States, and especially in rural areas. These projects included mosquito control, mine sealing, sanitary privy construction (sanitary privies replaced poorly constructed outhouses), and the clean-up of polluted streams. As this map shows, all of West Virginia benefited from some type of sanitation improvement. Also, keep in mind that this map shows projects only through June 30, 1936 - only one year into the eight year existence of the WPA. Map from an October 1936 WPA report.
Above: By the end of its program, the WPA had installed 308 miles of new storm and sanitary sewer lines in West Virginia, and nearly a quarter of a million sanitary privies. This work helped reduce the incidence and death rate for typhoid fever, a disease that thrives in areas with poor sanitation. It also helped reduce other diseases, e.g., dysentery and hookworm. Graph from 1938-1940 Biennial Report of the State Health Department of West Virginia.
Above: In addition to the WPA's work, the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) built large sewage disposal plants all across the country. Map from America Builds: The Record of PWA, 1939.
Above: Here is the West Virginia section of the map, showing 12 large sewage disposal plants constructed in the state by PWA. Many of these were built near rivers--such as the Bluestone, Ohio, and Big Sandy rivers--and helped prevent raw sewage from entering waterways.
Above: In its 1936-1938 biennial report, West Virginia's Health Department explained how the PWA's sanitation assistance marked "the beginning of a new era in West Virginia" and how the WPA's work had improved the cleanliness of West Virginia's streams (pp. 173-174). The important point here is that West Virginia is telling us, from the past, how to fix sanitation problems. Keep this in mind as you continue below. Image above courtesy of Hathitrust.
Above: In its 2020 infrastructure report card for West Virginia, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave West Virginia's wastewater infrastructure a "D" letter grade, noting insufficient funding, aging & deteriorating systems, and the "discharge of untreated wastewater" into streams and rivers. In its recommendations section, the ASCE makes no mention of the New Deal. Why not? Just two sentences would've been nice, for example, "During the New Deal, tremendous improvements were made to West Virginia's sanitation infrastructure, as noted by the state's health department. Similar solutions should be considered today." In other words, let people know that we have faced this problem before and solved it! (or at least, greatly improved it). Image above from the ASCE, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: In this screenshot, from the video, "Sewage smell concerns neighbors in Fayette County" (WSAZ News Channel 3, July 2023), we see raw sewage coming up from the ground and into a local waterway. This has been going on in West Virginia for years, and still does. See, for example, "Raw sewage still impacting parts of Fayette County, leaders ask for answers," 13 WOWK News, December 5, 2024; "Reports show pre-flood sewage issues in Cannelton; 'Band-Aid' fix being considered," Charleston Gazette-Mail, March 20, 2025 (subscription might be required); and "West Virginia town’s residents concerned over raw sewage flooding homes," 13 WOWK News, July 10, 2024. Image above used for educational and non-commercial purposes.
The New Deal cleaned us up. Trickle-down economics has us walking through each other's poop (literally, read below). And yet, no one wants to talk about New Deal solutions.
In 2022, an elderly resident of Huntington, West Virginia discussed raw sewage periodically ending up in her yard after storms: "I mean it is dangerous, it is nasty, it’s got poop, tampons, it’s got toilet paper in it. It is nasty... Sometimes I’ve got to walk through it and when I do I go straight to the bathroom and get in the shower, I don’t want that stuff on my feet" ("Decades of neglect of Huntington, West Virginia, sewer system leads to urgent need for action," 13 WOWK News, December 16, 2022).
In 2015, West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported that the "director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute, Paul Ziemkiewicz said the biggest threat in water supplies in southern West Virginia (and many areas in the state) by a long shot is raw sewage. 'Any contaminant you can think of pales in comparison to raw, untreated sewage,' Ziemkiewicz said. We’re talking about bacteria, parasites, and viruses that can cause short-term problems like diarrhea, eye infections, respiratory infection, and long-term problems like cancer, Dementia, and diabetes. And there are growing concerns about potential illnesses or effects from exposure to pharmaceuticals and synthetic hormones introduced through sewage" ("Is There Something in the Water, Southern W.Va.?" WVPB, January 15, 2015).
Recall that back in the day West Virginia's Health Department praised a "new era" of improved sanitation in West Virginia, thanks to federal funds, especially from WPA and PWA. Raw sewage was being prevented from entering streams (if not entirely, then at least at a much lower rate), and disease was being curtailed. But almost no one wants to discuss that today. Not reporters, not policymakers, not the American Society of Civil Engineers, not think tanks, not citizens, not academics... hardly anyone.
Isn't it ASTOUNDING that West Virginia told us what worked for them... and showed results... and still no one wants to talk about it?? Instead, we just keep fumbling along, cutting budgets and giving tax breaks to the rich (in the never-ending, and never-fulfilled, hope that their miraculous investments will lead us to the Promised Land).
The Biden (or "Bipartisan") Infrastructure Plan started us on a better path, but Democrats did a horrible job of highlighting its accomplishments and most voters don't seem to even know what's going on with it (see, for example, "Why a Biden-Harris Win Barely Registers on the Campaign Trail," Governing, August 6, 2024).
Now that America has fully embraced oligarchy, you can forget about a modern New Deal, at least for the foreseeable future. During these next several years, the rich will buy more mega-yachts, the little people will walk in each other's poop, and America will scratch its collective head and ask, "Golly gee, why are things so messed up?"
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