West Virginia’s ring has housed many opponents—unemployment, population loss, a struggling economy and an opioid crisis, just to name a few. However, like many other states, West Virginia’s laundry list of needs includes another woe that doesn’t receive nearly as much attention—outdated and neglected infrastructure.

While this is a vast and costly problem in and of itself, an outside force is bringing the Mountain State’s—and the country’s—aging infrastructure to the forefront of political, economic, scientific and community conversations: climate change.