A chemical leak at Elk River on January made state officials impose strict water use restrictions to over 300,000 people in nine West Virginia counties. This is so because the chemical leaked into this river, upstream from the West Virginia American treatment facility. They imposed the restrictions after discovering that about 7500 gal of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol had spilled out of the storage tank about a mile upriver of freedom industries, which was a specialty chemical company (Lindsay 8). The governor affirmed nine counties in West Virginia a disaster region because the spill contaminated the drinking water.
The smell of licorice was the first sign that affirmed there was something wrong in the Kanawha Valley in West Virginia. Therefore, when officials from the Department of Environmental protection and state’s emergency operations center invested, they confirmed it was a chemical spill on the Elk River. The spill contaminated the Kanawha valley water system which supplies water to the region. On 15 January, more than third of the affected customers had water restored. Governor Early Ray declared a state emergency where the Virginians were not to use their water because of the chemical spill. Meanwhile, Eastman chemical believed to be the main producer of MGHM started providing information and assistance to local, state, federal agencies and emergency responders to enhance spill response efforts.
The most affected counties were Putnam, Lincoln, Logan, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Roane and Boone in West Virginia. In additional, the Culloden region of Cabell country experienced the chemical spill. The residents were restricted from washing their clothes, brushing or bathing, but to use in flushing toilets and fire protection. For instance, the health officials in the Kanawha country asked the restaurants in the affected region to stop operation. Similarly, the Putnam country urged customers to fill bottles with water to share people that are West Virginia American water clients. The federal emergency departments were involved in helping the situation in the affected counties. Therefore, the authority ensured all affected residents were informed of the state of emergency.
The US center for disease control and prevention set the standard of 1part/million as safe concentration of crude MCHM in drinking water. The levels of the chemical that spread in the nine counties was controlled in order to remain below the threshold for over 24hours of testing before the water company would start to flush the system. The results indicated that the test were above 1 part /million and further test indicated concentration as high as 3 parts/ million (Lindsay 8). The data from the West Virginia department of health indicated that about 122 people had sought treatment and shown symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
The water leak spread in the West Virginia made Cincinnati decide to close the intake valves along the Ohio River to protect residents from a chemical spill. This was supposed to allow water to pass via the city without any contamination. Meanwhile, the Indiana largest city on the Ohio River was not on the safe side and officials decided to monitor developments in the chemical leak upriver in Charleston. Although the data would not affirm how much of the product leaked, the companies involved are held accountable for the West Virginia disaster. Meanwhile, the medical impact of the chemical spill was complex to assess because of an insufficient report on the issue. However, the water leak in West Virginia had a great effect on the residents and the whole nation.
Work Cited
Lindsay, Frost. "West Virginia chemical leak leaves 300,000 without water." Chemical Week 176.2 (2014): 8-9.
