West Virginia chemical spill

Elk River leak included another chemical

By Ken Ward Jr.

WVGazette,

21 January, 2014

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal and state investigators learned Tuesday that an additional chemical that wasn't previously identified was in the tank that leaked Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional drinking water intake.

The company told investigators that the Crude MCHM that leaked also contained a product called "PPH," according to state and federal officials.

State officials said late Tuesday that, after consulting with West Virginia American Water Co., they believe the water company's Elk River plant would likely have removed the chemical from drinking water during its normal treatment process. Additional testing of some of the original water samples from the first days after the incident is being conducted to confirm that, officials said.

"We have to go back and confirm things and make sure we're doing our due diligence for public health," said Gen. James Hoyer of the West Virginia National Guard, who has a team that's been heading water testing efforts following the leak.

Laura Jordan, spokeswoman for West Virginia American Water, said Tuesday night that the company "described in detail our water treatment process with state chemical experts, who ascertained that our current treatment process would likely have removed this chemical.

"We are also testing water samples collected last week to further confirm this and will share those results when available," Jordan said in an emailed statement.

Amy Goodwin, spokeswoman for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, said state public health officials had contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier in the day for assistance in understanding the chemical's potential health effects but had not heard back from the CDC as of Tuesday evening.

A Freedom Industries data sheet on the chemical says it can irritate the eyes and skin and is harmful if swallowed. The sheet lists the material as less lethal than Crude MCHM but also says no data are available on its long-term health effects.

Mike Dorsey, director of homeland security and emergency response for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said he learned about the additional chemical's presence in the tank that leaked at about 10 a.m., just before a routine daily meeting with various agencies and Freedom Industries about the situation at the site.

Dorsey said Freedom Industries President Gary Southern asked to speak with him privately, told him about the chemical being in the tank, and handed him data sheets on the material, which Dorsey referred to as polyglycol ethers.

"He said, 'I'm going to have a terrible day today,<t40>'<t$>" Dorsey said.

Dorsey said Southern told him the company previously had been adding the PPH to its Crude MCHM mixture and had stopped doing so. Southern said he didn't realize that the company had resumed adding the PPH to the mixture, Dorsey said.

Dorsey said there were about 300 gallons of PPH in the tank that leaked. It's not clear how much of that material leaked out of the tank or how much reached the river.

Dorsey said he was "extremely disappointed" to be learning only Tuesday -- 12 days after the leak -- about the presence of PPH in the tank that leaked.

Goodwin said that when Tomblin was told of the new information, the governor said that company's behavior was "totally unacceptable."

Crude MCHM is a coal-cleaning chemical made by Eastman Chemicals Co. It is stored and sold by Freedom Industries out of its facility just north of downtown Charleston.

While some reports have used the term "Crude MCHM" and the chemical "4-methylcyclohexanemethanol" interchangeably, the 4-MCHM is actually only one of seven components of Crude MCHM.

Eastman Chemical's material safety data sheet, or MSDS, says the chemical 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol makes up 68 to 89 percent of Crude MCHM. The Eastman MSDS also shows that Crude MCHM includes six other ingredients: 4-(methoxymethyl)cyclohexanemethanol, water, methyl 4-methylcyclohexanecarboxylate, dimethyl 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate, methanol and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol.

The Gazette learned about the presence of an additional chemical in the Freedom mixture from a source, and then confirmed some of the information with the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which is investigating the leak.

Later on Tuesday evening, the Tomblin administration made a team of state officials available to provide additional details.

Daniel Horowitz, managing director of the CSB, said, "we were told about another component in the mixture that had been added to the Crude MCHM, a product called 'PPH' consisting of polyglycol ethers, at about 5.6 percent."

Horowitz said that according to an MSDS provided by Freedom Industries, the additional product "has low oral toxicity."

"We are reviewing the information now and [the CSB] team may further comment," Horowitz said.

Later, Horowitz said that the CSB's information came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and referred calls to EPA. Officials from EPA did not respond to requests for comment

Former West Virginia Miner: We've Been Dumping Those Chemicals In The Water For Decades

Business Insider,

21 January, 2014

When up to 7,500 gallons of toxic 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia, leaving 300,000 people without tap water for around a week, former miner Joe Stanley was well prepared. He hadn’t been drinking the water for years.

Stanley, 64, worked at West Virginia’s Marrowbone Coal Mine from 1981 to 1996. His employer was Massey Energy, the same company responsible for the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in2010 that killed 29 miners and which was bought out in 2011.

Stanley says he lost his job after a conflict with management, when he, as union president, demanded an inquiry into certain chemicals that were being used in the mine. He claims that mine workers, particularly electricians and pinners, were getting sick.

Decades later, the truth is hard to determine; however, we’re more interested in his bleak outlook on pollution.

“I watched the coal industry poison our water for years. Now they’re telling us not to drink the water? We’ve been dumping this stuff into unlined ponds and into old mines for years,” he says. “This MCHM was just one of the chemicals we were told was highly toxic but that we dumped into old mine shafts and slurry ponds, and it’s been seeping into the groundwater for years. As soon as we’re out of that mine it immediately fills with water. And where does it go from there? I don’t know, you’re guess is as good as mine.”

“I haven’t drank the water here in years, and I suggest you do the same,” he says, pausing and then pointing at us. “Don’t drink the water. Just don’t do it.”

There’s plenty of evidence to support Stanley’s suspicions.

An Environmental Protection Agency assessment last year identified 132 cases where coal-fired power plant waste has damaged rivers, streams and lakes, and 123 where it has tainted underground water sources, according to an AP investigation by Dina Cappiello and Seth Borenstein. Nearly three quarters of the 1,727 coal mines in the U.S. have not been inspected in five years to see if they are following water pollution laws, according to the same investigation, which cites these and other alarming findings about coal pollution.

Those numbers don’t even include pollution by companies in related industries, like Freedom Industries, the chemical company behind this month’s spill.

Even West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has expressed uncertainty about water quality after the MCHM spill.

“It’s your decision,” Gov. Tomblin told reporters at a press conference on Monday. “If you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking with this water then use bottled water. I’m not going to say absolutely, 100 per cent that everything is safe. But what I can say is if you do not feel comfortable, don’t use it.”

Yet bringing up environmental concerns is a good way to make enemies in coal-dependent West Virginia, as Stanley knows.

“I’ve had threats, sure,” he says. “But I’ve got some friends and they look out for me.”

As an illustration of what he’s been up against Stanley grabs a sign that says “SAVE COAL, END THE EPA.” A campaign sign for leading local Republican Senate candidate Pat McGeehan, that kind of outlook wins a lot of votes in this region.