Groundwater contamination from dry cleaning solvent prompts West Virginia school’s relocation

By JOHN RABY
Associated Press

Classes at a small northern West Virginia school will be relocated starting this fall, two years after the town’s contaminated groundwater was added to a national cleanup priority list. Wetzel County Schools Superintendent Cassandra Porter announced the move Tuesday for students, faculty and staff at Paden City High School. They will relocate to schools in a nearby community when classes resume in August. Federal environmental officials placed Paden City’s groundwater on the list of Superfund cleanup sites in March 2022. Untreated groundwater contained a solvent widely used by dry cleaners. The contaminated area is around the site of a dry cleaner that closed more than two decades ago.