West Virginia's Contaminated Water

[Sharp-kun]

Surely they just need to check the water meters and see if the bill's right?

Water meters aren't complicated things and are mechanical (so can't be remotely tampered with).

[fgalkin]

"In general, January is our highest-usage month anyway," Jordan said. She said a storm early in the month that plunged temperatures into the single digits caused a sharp rise in water usage, as customers left faucets running to keep their lines from freezing.

Wut?

I even checked how much 'single digits' in Fahrenheit are, but it's apparently just -16 Celsius. Where I live temperatures sometimes drop to -30 and no one does that...

You don't live with Superior Murican pipes, do you?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Broomstick]

Where you live people probably don't run pipes touching the outside walls, but there is a lot of dumbass construction out there. Even if you DO "run your faucets" to prevent freezing it's at a drip, not some gushing flow. This is just the company trying to make the customers pay.

[LadyTevar]

"In general, January is our highest-usage month anyway," Jordan said. She said a storm early in the month that plunged temperatures into the single digits caused a sharp rise in water usage, as customers left faucets running to keep their lines from freezing.

Wut?

I even checked how much 'single digits' in Fahrenheit are, but it's apparently just -16 Celsius. Where I live temperatures sometimes drop to -30 and no one does that...

I am not sure where you live, but most WV houses fall into two categories: Old houses with copper or other metal pipes, or mobile homes with PVC pipes. Both are run under the houses in crawlspaces and often have bare minimum of insulation. Grandma's pipes froze nearly every winter, it just was something we dealt with because we didn't expect anything else. If your pipes do *not* freeze in these temps, it's considered to be a lucky break on your part, because it's so common for them to freeze and break. It is just how the houses were built.

Still, no, the slow trickle should not have caused this much of a jump in water usage for ANYONE.

[LadyTevar]

Spill site to be dismantled

The Freedom Industries tank farm responsible for the Elk River chemical leak is going to be shut down and dismantled, according to an order from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

All chemicals must be gone from the facility by March 15.

Freedom must begin the process of dismantling, removing and disposing of all 17 of its above-ground tanks by that same day, according to the order from Tomblin and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

All 17 tanks at the Freedom facility have inadequate secondary containment areas, according to a news release from Tomblin's office. Fourteen of those tanks still have chemicals in them.

"During the dismantling of the tanks, Freedom Industries is ordered to install measures that ensure that secondary containment is adequate to contain any potential spills resulting from the work," the release says.

Freedom had previously moved its "Crude MCHM," the coal-processing chemical that leaked into the river, to its sister facility in Nitro, but was cited by DEP because that facility did not have adequate secondary containment.

The order requires Freedom to provide weekly written reports to DEP describing how they are dismantling the tanks and disposing of the materials, as well as any anticipated actions.

The order says that Freedom has not brought any additional chemicals to its Elk River facility - Etowah River Terminal - since the leak was discovered Jan. 9. By Jan. 20, Freedom had removed nearly 270,000 gallons of chemical from its facility, about 20 percent of its Jan. 9 inventory, the order says.

The order states that Freedom must, "either sell the material to its customers, return the material to the original vendor, or store the material in an off-site area which provides adequate secondary containment."

The order is signed by Gary Southern, Freedom's president, and it says Freedom will not contest the state's jurisdiction with regards to the order.

Now, if they're dismantling it, are they also going to be attempting to hide evidence of what happened?

[Borgholio]

W.Va. official: People are inhaling formaldehyde after spill

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... e/5031963/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A state official said Wednesday that he "can guarantee" some West Virginians are breathing in traces of a carcinogen while showering after the chemical spill, but federal health guidelines say people need to breathe "a lot of it" to be a problem.

The crude MCHM that spilled into the water supply ultimately can break down into formaldehyde, Environmental Quality Board official Scott Simonton told a state legislative panel Wednesday. He added that the breakdown can happen in the shower and that formaldehyde is most toxic when inhaled.

But University of Washington public health dean Dr. Howard Frumkin, an environmental health specialist, suggested that officials use caution when interpreting the results of the water tests, including asking whether the chemical's presence existed before the spill.

"There's lot of possibilities there," he said, including the chance that formaldehyde showing up in tests isn't a result of the chemical spill.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the chemical "can make you feel sick if you breathe a lot of it."

Simonton called respiratory cancer the biggest risk with breathing in the chemical.

"I can guarantee that citizens in this valley are, at least in some instances, breathing formaldehyde," Simonton said. "They're taking a hot shower. This stuff is breaking down into formaldehyde in the shower or in the water system, and they're inhaling it."

Initial testing at Vandalia Grille in Charleston showed traces of the chemical in the water. Other testing showed no traces of formaldehyde, but samples are still being processed.

"The problem is, we're seeing it in water. We don't know what the concentration is in air." Simonton told reporters Wednesday. "We do know that there is enough mass of that contaminant to exceed EPA safe levels in air."

The testing is funded by a Charleston law firm, Thompson Barney LLC, which is also representing businesses that lost money because they couldn't use water for days.

Freedom Industries' spill in Charleston spurred a water-use ban for 300,000 West Virginians, but officials have lifted it.

State officials believe the leak of crude MCHM and stripped PPH started Jan. 9. Freedom Industries has estimated 10,000 gallons of chemicals leaked from its tank.

"We know that (crude MCHM) turns into other things, and these other things are bad," Simonton told reporters Wednesday. "And we haven't been looking for those other things. So we can't say the water is safe yet. We just absolutely cannot."

According to the federal Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention, formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. It is colorless, strong-smelling gas used to make building materials and household products, including walls, cabinets, and furniture.

Breathing formaldehyde in large quantities can cause sore throats, coughing, itchy eyes and nosebleeds. Symptoms also are common with other upper respiratory illnesses, such as colds, the flu and seasonal allergies. People with short-term exposure are less likely to have symptoms.

According to the CDC, the risk of health problems is low when formaldehyde levels are of 10 parts per billion. The risk is "medium" at 100 parts per billion, particularly among the elderly, young children and for those with health conditions such as asthma.

A spokeswoman for Freedom Industries did not immediately return a phone call for comment.

[LadyTevar]

Federal HazMat Agents Starting Inspection

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal hazardous materials investigators spent Tuesday at Freedom Industries in Charleston, looking at the facility where a chemical leaked earlier this month and contaminated the water supply of 300,000 West Virginians.

"The remediation effort has reached a point where we really can start ramping up the investigation side of things," said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, standing at the entrance to the tank farm on Barlow Drive. Goodwin had said previously that his office would investigate the leak, one of several agencies doing so.

"Going in the tank, reviewing where the breach might have occurred, videotaping the inside of the tank, taking pictures -- that kind of thing," Goodwin said about the investigation his office is conducting.

He said his office is already questioning witnesses and reviewing documents collected from the company.

"We're doing as thorough an investigation as we possibly can," he said.

Investigators from the FBI were going into the tank that leaked the coal-processing chemical known as Crude MCHM or 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol. Company officials later said another chemical, PPH, also was released into the Elk River, about a mile and a half above the intake for West Virginia American Water's treatment plant in Charleston.

Freedom has been ordered by Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky not to alter or modify "any structure, tank, equipment, material or condition of" its facility, with the exception of changes necessary for stopping and cleaning up the chemical leak. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a week after the leak.
On Saturday, state officials announced they would force Freedom Industries to shut down and dismantle the Elk River tank farm. Goodwin said Tuesday that won't be done until the investigation is complete.

The area around Freedom still smelled like licorice -- the odor of the chemical now familiar to many area residents -- on Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, a state Department of Health and Human Resources official said the department had stopped counting how many people were going to hospitals with health complaints that might be related to the contaminated water.

"DHHR has now moved toward the post-crisis review of hospitalizations and is no longer collecting daily reports of hospitalizations," DHHR spokeswoman Allison Adler said in a email.

"DHHR epidemiologists, with the assistance of CDC epidemiologists, will conduct a population surveillance which includes the review of patient charts to determine if there is a link between the illness and the chemical leak," Adler said. "All information gathered and released will be with regard to the population. The DHHR has significant experience in performing these surveys as it is part of its public health mission."

State and water company officials have said the water is safe, relying on a standard of 1 part per million for the chemical that they say was stated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC officials have said they should have been clearer that the threshold was not a "bright line" between safe and unsafe, and a CDC advisory for pregnant women not to drink the water remains in effect.