West Virginia school ordered to remain open after effort to close it due to toxic groundwater fears

A small West Virginia school will remain open after a judge sided with residents who fought a county superintendent's decision to relocate classes due to contaminated groundwater under the school being on a national cleanup priority list.

Wetzel County Circuit Judge Richard Wilson on Wednesday ordered Paden City High School to be "reopened immediately and kept open as if it never closed," news outlets reported.

In June, county Schools Superintendent Cassandra R. Porter announced that students, faculty and staff at the school would be relocated to existing schools in nearby New Martinsville when classes resume in August.

Attorneys representing a group of those students, faculty and staff then filed a petition to block the move. The petition argued that the federal government did not recommend closing the school because there was no health risk and that closing the school would "devastate" the community.

Wilson temporarily blocked Porter's decision on July 12 pending a July 25 hearing. The judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday, reinstating all Paden City school personnel and directing equipment that was removed to be returned to the school.

"This community inspires us all," Teresa Toriseva, an attorney representing the residents, said on her Facebook page after the decision was announced.

In March 2022, federal environmental officials placed Paden City's groundwater on the list of Superfund cleanup sites. Untreated groundwater contained the solvent tetrachloroethylene at levels higher than the federally allowed limit.

Tetrachloroethylene is widely used by dry cleaners. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the contaminated area is around the site of a dry cleaner that closed more than two decades ago in the Ohio River town of about 2,500 residents.

According to the EPA, tetrachloroethylene is a likely carcinogen and can harm the nervous system, liver, kidneys and reproductive system.

Paden City is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Pittsburgh.