Virginia water ban lifted ‘soon’
Print Edition
Officials are promising that a ban on tap water that was tainted by a chemical spill soon will be lifted, as about 300,000 people in West Virginia had to wash, cook and brush their teeth with bottled water for a fifth day.
Questions lingered yesterday about how and why the leak occurred and whether the company, Freedom Industries, took too long to let officials know about the problem.
Tests over the weekend showed that levels of the licorice-smelling chemical used in coal processing were consistently below a toxic threshold, but tests were expected to continue yesterday.
If tests continue to show the water is safe, the ban affecting the rural state’s capital region will be lifted in waves for specific areas, the first being in downtown Charleston, said West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre.
“We see light at the end of the tunnel,” Governor Earl Ray Tomblin told reporters.
The governor urged residents not to use the water for anything but flushing toilets.
Ten people exposed to the water were admitted to the hospital. None were in a serious condition, Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling said.
About 28,400 liters of the chemical is believed to have leaked from a tank and containment area, and some got into the Elk River and the water treatment plant downstream.
Even in its most concentrated form, the chemical isn’t deadly. However, people were told they shouldn’t even wash their clothes in affected water, as the compound can cause skin irritation to vomiting and diarrhea.
Freedom Industries’ tanks don’t fall under an inspection program, and the chemicals stored at the facility weren’t considered hazardous enough.
Essentially, Freedom Industries wasn’t under state oversight at all, said Michael Dorsey, chief of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Homeland Security and Emergency Response office.
“There’s no question that they should have called earlier,” Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said.
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