West Virginia’s Elk River trout fishery got a huge reprieve last night (July 29) when the Pocahontas Public Service District voted 2-1 to build a proposed sewage treatment plant away from the upper Elk’s floodplain.

The vote in favor of Site 7, at the foot of Snowshoe Mountain on Snowshoe Resort property, effectively kills a plan to build in the floodplain at the junction of the Elk’s two major tributaries. It also avoids the need for a 4-mile pipeline that would have carried raw sewage through an area pockmarked with sinkholes, caves and underground voids.

If the plant gets built according to plans drawn up by Clarksburg-based Thrasher Engineering, water discharged from the facility will be double-filtered and cooled to prevent polluting Big Spring Fork, the Elk tributary that drains the Snowshoe area.

This week’s Gazette-Mail column explains how last-minute changes to the site and design of a sewage treatment plan could affect the Elk River’s nationally renowned trout fishing.

The Pocahontas Public Service District will meet July 29 to decide the issue. Here’s hoping that cooler heads prevail.