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Responding to the Freedom Industries chemical spill
David Gutman has an excellent account in this morning’s Charleston Gazette of Gov. Tomblin’s and WV American Water’s cave in on public demands for more water distribution to all WV American customers, not just those in the Charleston area. Mr. Gutman details the three demonstrations that took place yesterday outside the WV Coal Association meeting […]
The United Way of Central West Virginia is providing utility assistance to low-wage workers who lost work hours as a result of the water crisis. The application form is available here. Assistance will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis, and the deadline for applications is anticipated to be Feb. 21 (depending on availability of […]
The State Journal reports that Gov. Tomblin has responded to public distrust of WV American’s water by asking both the water company and FEMA to provide more clean water for West Virginia American Water’s customers. The Governor got support for his new FEMA request from members of WV’s Congressional delegation in Washington. It seems that […]
The Charleston Gazette reports this morning that: Kanawha County Manager Jennifer Sayre said the county contacted the Governor’s Office and was told there would be three trucks available for them Monday, but that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had declared an end to the incident period and would no longer provide water to the state. […]
Dr. Jennifer Sass, Senior Scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, has attempted to extrapolate a real health advisory standard for the only chemical in crude MCHM that has any toxicology data at all. Her conclusion is that the 1 ppm standard advocated by WV American Water and Gov. Tomblin is actually .025 ppm, about […]
Marshall University scientist and member of the WV Environmental Quality Board Scott Simonton testified today before a joint WV legislative committee that he found formaldehyde in water samples taken at a downtown Charleston restaurant. WV American Water and Gov. Tomblin’s office have been saying publicly that the chemical mixtures that WV American Water pulled into […]
Freedom Industries provided a new estimate of the amount of crude MCHM/PPH that leaked from their tank farm. The company has corrected their earlier estimate of 7500 gallons upward to more than 10,000 gallons. This is still just an estimate, because Freedom had no real time measuring system to monitor the contents of its tanks […]
The West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has a new website page devoted to the leak and resulting water crisis. On this page, you will find contact information for WVAW and county emergency management agencies. The page also compiles links to relevant DEP actions, sampling results as of January 25, and information […]
Dr. Andrew Whelton, an environmental engineer at the University of Southern Alabama, was on the ground in Charleston for several days after the chemical spill, testing water and helping residents with flushing. He has compiled the ten most commonly asked questions about flushing and water quality, and his answers to these questions are worth reading […]
The Charleston Gazette has set up this page for “one-stop shopping” – all of its new coverage thus far on the spill: http://www.wvgazette.com/News/watercrisis