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Hello? West Virginia? I have a few questions for you …

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West Virginia Declares State Of Emergency After Coal Chemical Contaminates Drinking Water


Residents of nine counties in West Virginia have been told not to use or drink their water after a chemical used by the coal industry spilled into the Elk River on Thursday. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency as more than 100,000 customers, or 300,000 people, are without safe drinking water.

“Don’t make baby formula,” said West Virginia American Water Company president Jeff McIntyre. “Don’t brush your teeth. Don’t shower. Toilet flushing only.”

The chemical, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM), is used to wash coal of impurities and spilled from a tank at Freedom Industries into the river. While the amount of MCHM that spilled wasn’t immediately known, West Virginia American Water has been conducting water quality testing every hour. According to Laura Jordan, a spokesperson with the water company, they believe the chemical is leaking at ground level and “there is a possibility this leak has been going on for sometime before it was discovered Thursday,” WSAZ reported.

First, why on earth was a chemical capable of doing that much damage within a 100 miles of a water source much less in a tank next to the river?

Second, no one knows how long it has been leaking? Do you just wait for people to get sick and die before you “look into it”?

Third, “Freedom Industries”? Hello, fake name alert!! Good luck trying to find these guys to pay for cleanup.

In America, the costs of free enterprise run amok are always borne by the citizens. When will we finally say “that cost is too high”?

That last question, by the way, is addressed to everyone in America, not just West Virginians.  

The 6 Most Terrifying Facts About The Chemical Spill Contaminating West Virginia’s Drinking Water

1. No one knows when water will be safe to drink again.

2. No one knows when the leak started or how much has leaked into the Elk River.

3. The water company has had no contact with Freedom Industries, the company that manufactures the spilled chemical.

4. There is no standard process for testing the toxicity of the spilled chemical in water.

5. It’s unclear just how dangerous the diluted chemical is to drink or breathe.

6. The chemical may have leached into the soil.

When we destroy our drinking water, we are done. Period. The rest of it doesn’t matter any more.


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 27 Comments

27 comments

  1. JanF

    Our state has a billion dollar tourism industry that employs tens of thousands of people. The mining industry is promising “dozens” of jobs.

    Short sighted and plainly stupid.

  2. princesspat

    Bellingham mayor wants federal attention to rail safety

    With trainloads of Bakken crude oil already rolling through the heart of the city to the BP Cherry Point refinery, Mayor Kelli Linville will ask City Council to approve a resolution calling on state and federal officials to do everything they can to promote safety.

    ~snip~

    At the southern edge of the city, the BNSF main line crosses environmentally sensitive Chuckanut Bay and rolls close to the city sewage treatment plant, several industrial buildings and the Alaska ferry terminal. It then goes under the balconies of houses, apartments and condos and the Chrysalis Hotel, built to take advantage of waterfront views. The rail line also skirts the edge of Boulevard Park, which is crammed with people on sunny days. Farther north, the rail line is a near neighbor to the Old Town area, Eldridge Avenue homes, Port of Bellingham offices, Squalicum Harbor and Bellingham Cold Storage, among many other things.

    North of Bellingham, the rail line is no more than the width of a football field away from Ferndale High School – including the grandstand at the high school’s football field.

    The photo in the article is at the base of the hill we live on, by our park, and a train whistle is blowing as I write this comment. I’m curious to know if the city has a spill and or fire response plan.

  3. princesspat

    David Waldman ‏@KagroX 17m

    Well, I guess “the science is still out” on what’s in WV’s water. So I guess it’s all a hoax. Drink up for freedom.

    The article he links to….

    Chemical Guesswork in West Virginia

    Exposure guidelines: None established for products or components

    Decomposition: Unavailable

    Ecological information: There is no data available for the product

    And that I think is the most important message in this story. That we don’t really know. That we haven’t done our homework well on enough of these industrial compounds because we haven’t been willing to invest in the research or provide enough financial support to the agencies who could do the work. Our Toxic Substances Control Act is more than 35 years old and we (by which I mean Congress) haven’t conjured up the backbone to update and strengthen it as of this date.

    It might be, probably is, that this “never heard of it before”  compound flooding into drinking water is not that harmful. But it’s because we don’t knew, because we can’t be sure, that  we have little choice but to turn off the taps. Almost-the-same compounds can provide context and even some comfort. And chemical guess work can provide almost answers. But neither of those options can provide the reassurance – or the answers –  that we deserve.

  5. JanF

    Sen. Joe Manchin, July 2012

    U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who led a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency when he was Governor, issued the following statement after the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of West Virginia. As Governor, Senator Manchin filed the first lawsuit against the EPA for overreaching its authority under the Clean Water Act.

    “What a great day for West Virginia. I’m pleased and gratified to hear that the federal court has ruled in favor of our state, the miners who work here and the people who depend on coal for their livelihoods – and against the EPA for overstepping its boundaries,” Senator Manchin said. “As Governor, I sued the EPA because this bureaucratic agency was taking the wrong course.”


  6. JanF

    I have been following @WVFDW WV Democratic Women on Twitter for quite some time. There are a lot of people there who very much get that the culture of anti-regulation is damaging to the citizens of their state:


    @heralddispatch: #US #AttorneyGoodwin announces federal investigation into #wvchemleak #Cwvspill #wvwatercrisis http://zo.pe/b0EP

  7. HappyinVT

    As many as 300,000 residents remain without potable water as officials continue to investigate how the leak occurred. The West Virginia Poison Center by Saturday morning logged nearly 800 calls from residents reporting symptoms of nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, and skin irritation. http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/wha…  

  9. JanF

    After Leak, People In WV Worried But Want Plants To Stay

    The widow of a coal miner, Wireman is frustrated about the chemical spill that’s deprived 300,000 West Virginians of clean tap water for four days: “I’m really angry.”

    But as quickly as she said it, she wanted to make one thing clear: She didn’t blame the coal or chemical industries for the spill.

    Is it an “act of God”, then? Just the price you pay when your politicians have convinced you that there are no jobs except digging coal out of the ground? Has anyone thought to consider what happens when all the coal is gone?  

  10. JanF

    A few news stories and Tweets.

    Does West Virginia Have The Political Will To Prevent The Next Water Disaster?

    On Monday, West Virginia officials began lifting the water bans that had affected nine of the state’s counties since Thursday, when as much as 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to clean coal spilled into the Elk River. Residents in the affected regions celebrated when they heard the news, which brought a welcome end to brushing teeth with bottled water and trekking to friend’s houses and community centers to shower.

    But for some West Virginia residents, the ban’s end presents a new fear: that rather than use the spill to fight for tougher environmental regulations, the lawmakers, residents, and rest of the country will soon forget that the spill ever happened.

    “It’ll be the same song and dance again,” Charleston attorney Rich McGervey said. “Because it’s the same song and dance that happens every time. It’s always ‘We can’t afford it; we can’t tax the industry more than they’re already taxed, they’re already over-regulated.'”

    ~

    State ignored plan for tougher chemical oversight

    Three years ago this month, a team of federal experts urged the state of West Virginia to help the Kanawha Valley create a new program to prevent hazardous chemical accidents.

    The U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommended the step after its extensive investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute.

    Since then, the proposal has gone nowhere.

    ~

    Lawyers Aim Bigger Than Freedom Industries in West Virginia Chemical Spill

    Working with two fellow local firms, Hill Peterson has filed suit against Freedom Industries on behalf of businesses temporarily shut down by the water crisis. The suit also names the West Virginia unit of American Water Works (AWK), the largest publicly traded water utility in the country. The sole intake for the Charleston-area water system is a mere mile-and-a-half down the Elk River from the Freedom Industries chemical-storage facility. […]

    Timothy Bailey, a partner with Bucci, Bailey & Javins, another litigation ally of the Hill Peterson firm, speculated that apparent contradictions between Southern’s account of the chemical leak and that of state authorities may lie behind the Ryan publicity firm’s resignation and could signal deep trouble for Freedom Industries in court. In public briefings, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection officials have said that their inspectors investigated the situation at Freedom on Jan. 9-not because of an alert from the company, but after neighbors complained of an annoying chemical odor resembling that of licorice. When the inspectors arrived at the Freedom plant along the Elk River in Charleston, they found that someone had tried unsuccessfully to prevent the chemical from escaping a containment area adjacent to the leaking 35,000-gallon storage tank.

    ~

    Goodwin announces federal investigation into chemical leak

    U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin issued a press release Friday, pledging a federal investigation into any discovered wrongdoing.

    “Yesterday’s release of a potentially dangerous chemical into our water supply has put hundreds of thousands of West Virginians at risk, severely disrupted our region’s economy, and upended people’s daily lives,” Goodwin stated in the prepared release.

    “My office and other federal law enforcement authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the release. We will determine what caused it and take whatever action is appropriate based on the evidence we uncover,” the release added.

    At least he is calling it a “release” not a spill.

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