Chemical spill in W Virginia

No timeline for lifting water tap ban after W. Virginia chemical spill

Schools and businesses have shut down and shops have sold out of bottled water following a chemical spill into the Elk River in West Virginia that has affected 300,000 people in nine counties. The White House has declared the incident a federal disaster.

RT.

10 January, 2014

American President Barack Obama “ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts,” said a US administration statement on Friday morning.

Federal authorities opened an investigation into what caused the leak that poisoned the river and shut down much of the West Virginia’s capital, Charleston and surrounding counties. US Attorney Booth Goodwin said authorities will take whatever action is appropriate based on the evidence found, reports the Associated Press.

In response to the crisis, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Water and Waste Management ordered Freedom Industries to cease operations Friday afternoon. The Division of Air Quality launched an investigation Thursday morning to address residents’ complaints, and found that MCHM was discharging into the air. Crews also noticed that an MCHM spill had pooled in containment ditches in the plant, which is also located near a river.

Late on Thursday, West Virginia’s Governor Earl Ray Tomblin issued a state of emergency for Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, and Roane counties.

Residents of these counties are urged not to use tap water for drinking, cooking, washing or bathing. Health officials recommend it to be used only for flushing toilets and fighting fires. Currently it is unclear when the ban will be lifted.

Water distribution centers began to open in affected areas early on Friday, according to The Charleston Gazette.

“You must bring your own containers to receive water and some locations have limited hours and a limit on gallons available,” the paper said.

Local media published photos of locals lining up in shops to buy bottled water and empty shelves.

Water is distributed to residents at the South Charleston Community Center in Charleston, West Virginia, January 10, 2014 (Reuters / Lisa Hechesky)Water is distributed to residents at the South Charleston Community Center in Charleston, West Virginia, January 10, 2014 (Reuters / Lisa Hechesky)

The spill of chemical used in the coal industry occurred Thursday on the Elk River in the state’s capital Charleston, upriver from West Virginia’s largest water treatment plant. The foaming agent, 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries and overran a containment area.

Freedom - a company that produces chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries – made its first comment on the situation only more than a day after the incident.

“Since the discovery of the leak, safety for residents in Kanawha and surrounding counties has been Freedom Industries’ first priority. We have been working with local and federal regulatory, safety and environmental entities… and are following all necessary steps to fix the issue,” Gary Southern, the President of the company said in a statement released early Friday afternoon.

“Our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further contamination. At this point, Freedom Industries is still working to determine the amount of 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol, or Crude MCHM… that has been released, as the first priority was safety, containment and cleanup,” the text reads as cited by WSAZ.

The Sheriff's Department sent deputies to Freedom Industries' office Friday because residents were calling in death threats and a number of people had threatened to bomb the building.

The company is going to set up an incident command center on site.

According to Tom Aluise, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman, the tank that leaked holds at least 40,000 gallons.

“We're confident that no more than 5,000 gallons escaped,” he said earlier, as quoted by AP. “A certain amount of that got into the river. Some of that was contained.”

West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre said he did not “know if the water is not safe” and added that the chemical was not lethal in its strongest form.

“Until we get out and flush the actual system and do more testing, we can't say how long this (advisory) will last at this time.”

On the water company’s Facebook page, some residents complained that they had not been immediately informed about the water contamination.

“What about those who have already used the water for all of the above? What do they need to do? And are you guys going to pay for the extra expense of people having to buy bottled water or reimburse them for the punitive damages?” one user wrote.

“My mother has drunk and used the water all day long! Water was also put out for my animals so they better not get sick and die from ingesting the contaminated water that was put out for them!” another person commented.

“Yeah, so I'm 6 months pregnant and drank tap water at a restaurant about an hour before the notice was sent out,” one woman said.

McIntyre told a media conference Friday that the water company knows of no treatment to remove the chemical agent from water supplies, and that crews would have to flush out many miles of service lines, reports the Charleston Gazette.He said he did not know how long that might take; adding that even after the level of pollution is determined “water can take hours to days” to flush through the system

W. Virginia Declares State of Emergency After Huge Chemical Spill

AlterNet,

10 January, 2014

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.

Local officials described MCHM as smelling like licorice and looking like “cooking oil floating on top of the water.” The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said symptoms of MCHM exposure include “severe burning in throat, severe eye irritation, non-stop vomiting, trouble breathing or severe skin irritation such as skin blistering.”

Though the spill occurred Thursday morning, West Virginia American Water didn’t provide its customers with a warning until evening and, as Al Jazeera reported, several were angered by the lack of information, particularly regarding what should be done if they had already used or ingested the water.

Early Friday, Tomblin announced that the White House approved a federal emergency declaration to help with the urgent water situation. Soon after the governor’s declaration on Thursday, residents flooded local stores for bottled water and disposable dishes. “It was chaos, that’s what it was,” cashier Danny Cardwell told CBS News.

West Virginia American Water has emphasized that once contaminated by MCHM, the water cannot be treated. As a result, schools in at least five of the counties will be closed Friday and hospitals, restaurants, nursing homes and other establishments in the area are also banned from using their water as the entire system is flushed out and testing continues. As of early Friday, Freedom Industries, “a full service producer of specialty chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries,” had yet to comment on the spill.