The Waters - and the People - of West Virginia Are Unsafe Again

This is one of those bits of news that sends my cynicism meter into the stratosphere. On Monday, the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee passed, by a 13 to 12 vote, SB 423. This bill will undo the chemical tank safety legislation that was passed last year after a coal-cleaning chemical from a tank owned by Freedom Industries spilled into the Elk River and poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians, some of whom had to rely on bottled water for weeks. Schools were closed, and many businesses, such as restaurants, lost business.

The bill would give West Virginia’s Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management more power to withhold from the public information on the chemical tanks in the state. I don’t know about you, but that certainly makes me feel more secure. The bill also reduces the number of tanks administered by last year’s safety law from around 50,000 down to about 12,000. State mandated inspections will be cut back under this bill, and information concerning hazardous materials stored near drinking water intakes will be blocked from the public. The bill has already passed the West Virginia Senate. Governor Tomblin’s signature is almost a certainty.

Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette has more detail of the story here, and you can read his Coal Tattoo blog about it here.

How is a fiasco like this possible? Is it that the folks in West Virginia are too distracted by driving their kids to school and getting themselves off to work that they don’t have the time or energy to care about the water they drink? Or have all those chemicals in the water affected the memories of all those people who had to go to the store just so they could have water to drink last year?

Bryan T. McNiel, in his book Combating Mountaintop Removal: New Directions in the Fight Against Big Coal, says that West Virginia best resembles a third world country, one in which an outside industry extracts resources and, in order to do so, has all of the state, the political leaders and the populace, under its thumb. Even if you were to ignore the endemic poverty of West Virginia, the poorest state of the union, or the manner in which the coal industry keeps its message in the minds of the folks of the Mountain State—going so far as to inject itself into the classrooms of Appalachian schoolchildren—this latest turn by the elected officials in Charleston would be proof enough that McNiel is correct in thinking of West Virginia as the banana republic that rests somewhere between Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

I guess that it will be impossible to find out how this came about. Did this legislation come about only recently, the result of renewed backroom deals between politicians and the coal companies? Or had the fix been in from the start? That SB 373 was only a sham, a dog and pony show of politicians doing what’s right for the state of West Virginia and the people who live there, while they knew full well that months hence, possibly even a year later, that SB 373 would die and the laws to protect the water would be as flimsy as a rusted 50-year-old storage tank held together by duct tape and earnestly crossed fingers.

            I don’t think we’ll find out either way. Oh, and by the way, we still do not know about the toxicity of 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, the licorice smelling substance that fouled the waters of the Elk River.

Troubled waters again for West Virginia

Trucking Water From West Virginia to Detroit

In an apparent show of solidarity, in an organized effort West Virginians are trucking in water to Detroit residents who have had their water shut off. West Virginia is of course where more than 16% of that state’s residents had their water poisoned by a coal industry related chemical spill.

            During West Virginia’s water crisis the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation delivered water to some of the 300,000 residents whose water was tainted by the toxic spill. Now they are trucking in water to thirsty Detroiters who have had their water cut off due to overdue bills.

            Activists in Detroit say that Detroit water bills have doubled in the last ten years, and about 50 percent of water accounts in what has been known as the Motor City are delinquent. Some complain that businesses such as golf courses with delinquent bills have not had their water shut off while residents have had their taps turned off. The crackdown on delinquent bills has been explained as part of Detroit’s efforts to get out of bankruptcy.

West Virginians ensure that Detroit's water glass is at least half full

Ohio, a Fracking Dumping Ground, Now Wonders About the Safety of Its Drinking Water

I guess that the state of Ohio is having one of those “Well, duh!” moments, when the folks there realize that expansive environmental degradation is not just the domain of their neighbors across the river in West Virginia.

            As with my last post that ended with West Virginia Senate Majority Leader John Unger warning that the toxic spill that deprived 300,000 residents of his state of basic drinking water could, if ignored, serve as a harbinger to the rest of the country. Through the lax enforcement of regulation and even the absence of regulation other parts of the country could have poisoned water pouring out of their taps as well.

            Just as West Virginia leads the country in mountaintop removal, Ohio leads the country in being a dumping ground for fracking waste. Fracking requires tons and tons of water, which becomes contaminated because of the chemicals used in the fracking process. Because Ohio is blessed, or cursed depending on your point of view, with unique rock layers that are ideal for disposing of fracking waste, the Buckeye State is home to over 200 injection wells where hydraulic fracturing waste is pumped deep underground, sometimes as deep as 5,000 feet.

            With so many West Virginians out of water for so long, a number of Ohioans are now asking how safe is it to pump tons and tons of waste under the rocks that provide their groundwater. A major spill in a river is a disaster, but the flow of the water cleanses the river within weeks or months. On the other hand, once groundwater is contaminated, it could be decades or even centuries before the contaminants make their way from an aquifer.

            Just as it seems obvious, now, that letting a large tank filled with a toxin to sit next to a major water source was a bad idea, you kind of wonder why weren’t some Ohioans a little leery of letting folks pump toxic waste into the rocks under their state in the first place.

Hope and Change Not Coming to West Virginia Any Time Soon

There may be little hope that things will actually change for the folks living in southern West Virginia. Despite the inconvenience and health risks that the chemical spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol brought to their homes, businesses, and schools for the last seven weeks, it looks like effective legislation to regulate the types of storage tanks that hold MCHM and similar dangerous substances will not be forthcoming. Stalled in committee, a chemical regulation bill looks unlikely to pass before the West Virginia legislative session closes in a week.

            By the way, I did not get this story from the usual domestic news sources that I rely upon, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc. I didn’t even see the story in the Charleston Gazette, which has done some fine reporting on the poisonous spill. I got the news from Al Jazeera, a news source that has been a bombing target of the U.S. and British governments.

            I’m feeling especially cynical right now.

The tank that leaked thousands of gallons of MCHM into West Virginia's Elk River, poisoning the drinking water for 300,000 residents. Note the evidence of corrosion streaming down the side of the aged tank. photo Tom Hindman Getty Images

No Heavy Metals For Kentucky's Public Drinking Water

This is from the Kentucky Division of Water. A study that looked at 12 years of data of Kentucky’s drinking water found that the drinking water was safe from heavy metal pollutants, even in the counties where there is a lot of coal mining.

            Using data from the National Cancer Institute, the study compared counties where coal production has been high with counties where coal production has been low and found no significant difference in cancer rates, although the study did find that cancer rates were higher in the eastern Appalachian mountains of the state.

            Other recent scientific studies have found high rates of cancer, birth defects, and other ailments afflicting those who live among mountaintop removal mines. These studies were peer reviewed. The study from the Kentucky Division of Water has yet to receive peer review. Also, the study only considered public drinking water and not well water. It is water drawn from wells that is usually fouled by mountaintop mining. And, as well, cancer rates were compared between counties of high and low coal production. Including counties where there is no coal production, a control group, was not included.

            Even still, I’d be interested to know more about some of this research and what might be concluded after this study receives peer review.

Judas Priest, heavy metal you might want photo: last.fm 

A coal ash spill, heavy metals you probably don't want photo: celcias.com