Testing the Waters in West Virginia

Well, well, well. Maybe I should figure better late than never, but that is small consolation when your drinking water has smelled like licorice and made you nauseated and gave you headaches for weeks.

            The National Institute of Health, specifically the National Toxicology Program at the NIH, announced that they will conduct extensive tests on the health effects of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the coal cleaning substance that spilled into the Elk River in West Virginia back in January and poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 residents.

            I’m glad that the NIH is doing its job, but it is unsettling that this announcement comes six months after the Elk River spill. It’s actually unsettling that MCHM, which has been used by the coal industry for decades, hadn’t been tested long ago.

The glass is half full and long overdue to be tested for toxicity

Three Months On West Virginia Still Suffers From Troubled Waters

Three months on some West Virginians still aren't drinking the water.

Sorry to have dropped the ball on this blog for a while. There has been plenty to write about, but I’ve been tied up with a few things lately. I promise to get back to a more regular schedule with my posts here.

            The story that I’ve been following a great deal lately is the toxic spill in West Virginia’s Elk River that occurred in January of this year. Though the spill happened almost exactly three months ago, apparently there are still folks who are staying away from their tap water, and some folks are complaining that the telltale licorice smell still lingers in the water coming from their taps. The levels of the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol have dropped in the drinking water. The highest level of the chemical in water tested in a ten-home pilot project was found to be 6.1 parts per billion, much lower than the Center For Disease Control’s somewhat arbitrary threshold of 1000 parts per billion.

            It seems as though some members of the national press are keeping an eye on the water problems in the Kanawha Valley. I heard this story on Here and Now. Interviewed for the story is Rahul Gupta. The Kanawha-Charleston health director said that there may now be evidence pointing to long-standing low levels of MCHM being present in the drinking water of the Kanawha Valley. As he said, there is no research on what this chemical might do to people who are exposed to small amounts of it over long periods of time.

And the spill made the pages of the New Yorker. Evan Osnos, who years ago worked as a photojournalist in Clarksburg, West Virginia, my hometown, delves into the history of the coal companies and the grip that they have on the politics of the Mountain State. In his piece Osnos suggests that the rise of the GOP in West Virginia, a very traditional Democratic stronghold, is not a good trend. Although the anti-environmental rhetoric of the GOP and that party’s willingness to slash and burn environmental and health regulations would seem to support what he has to say, I think things are bad in my home state no matter which party occupies the state house or the governor’s mansion. The lack of regulatory control over the coal companies and the chemical industries goes back through the administrations of governors Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, both Democrats.

            Democrats and Republicans both bear some of the blame for the state of affairs in West Virginia; the same can be said of the electorate that sends these politicians into office. Ultimately, however, the coal companies and the chemical industry in West Virginia are responsible for the polluted waters and sickened people. From the time Appalachian children attend grammar school, where the coal industry has developed and, with the blessing of the educational establishment, inserted into Appalachian schools’ curricula to indoctrinate students and turn them into coal industry loving adults, through the industry’s campaign against the president and environmental regulation in the guise of fighting Obama’s “war on coal,” King Coal and the chemical companies influence enough of the electorate to get coal-friendly politicians into office. Their influence is not total. Recent polling indicates that mountaintop removal remains unpopular in West Virginia. Even still, you don’t have to convince every voter, just enough to make the difference to get your preferred candidate into office. And once in office, no matter what a state senator or governor may believe personally, they are barraged with the money and lobbying of the industries that control West Virginia.

            Without footage of floodwaters or images of flattened houses, most of the national press moved on from the story of West Virginians and their water problems. But Osnos quotes West Virginia Senate Majority Leader John Unger pointing out why this toxic spill deserves the attention of the rest of the country, “Martin Luther King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Why should anybody care about what goes on in West Virginia? Because it’s the canary in the mineshaft. If you ignore it in West Virginia, it’s coming, it’s going to continue to build, and the issue is: Should our country have the debate about our rights to the very basic infrastructure that sustains us? Or should we continue to ignore it?”

Duke Energy Wants to Have Its Cake and Eat It, Too. And They Want to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, Too

Sorry about that coal ash spill thingy. You folks don't mind paying for it now, do you?

This news item has my head spinning. In a move that goes way beyond having unmitigated gall, Duke Energy, whose spill of between 50,000 and 82,000 tons of coal ash fouled North Carolina’s Dan River last month, now says that the power company’s customers should pick up the bill to clean up the company’s dozens of coal ash storage sites.

            Lynn Good, Duke Energy’s CEO, told the Charlotte Observer that since rate payers had enjoyed the electricity the company provided for generations they are the ones who should pay for the cleanup of the byproduct of producing that electricity.

            OK, so I sell you a guitar. Years later, due to my bad business practices, I incur debts. I then tell you that since you bought a guitar and benefited from my bad business practices, you should pay my bills. That is exactly what Duke is trying to do here. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. And they want to have your cake and eat it too, too.

Hat tip to my friend Amy for this story.

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

Maybe West Virginians Really Aren't Happy With King Coal After All

I’ve been blogging about my apparent dismay that there doesn’t seem to be that much of a sense of outrage in West Virginia when those folks have been denied basic drinking water for weeks on end. Well, this recent poll by the Sierra Club may indicate that, though they are not carrying signs and marching down the street, West Virginians are not happy with the situation in their state.

            Across party lines in this poll of 504 West Virginia voters a great majority favor more regulation of the coal industry, with an overwhelming 68 percent, including 57 percent of Republican respondents, saying that greater regulation would have prevented last month’s toxic spill in the Elk River that poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginia residents. Another 65 percent of respondents thought that the coal industry bore “some” or “a lot” of responsibility for air and water pollution in their state. And 61 percent believe that coal companies have too much influence in their state’s politics.

            These people are voters. Let’s hope that their beliefs and convictions accompany them to the polls in the next election.

When the river looks like this, maybe it's time to call in the regulators.

West Virginia Governor Tomblin Meets With EPA Administrator McCarthy, Maddening Irony Ensues

Gov. Tomblin criticizes ‘unreasonable’ EPA rules

The above link takes you to Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog in which he reports on the meeting between West Virginia governor Earl Ray Tomblin and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. In the same meeting in which the two discussed the poison water crisis in southern West Virginia, Tomblin complained about the Environmental Protection Agency’s “unreasonable” rules.

            Tomblin’s comments about unreasonableness concerned the agency’s greenhouse gas regulations and not regulations on chemical containers and toxic spills in rivers, but even still the irony meter must have gone off the charts while the governor spoke to the Washington official.

United For Coal? What About United For People and Safe Drinking Water?

Just one to three more weeks, and we might know if the water in southern West Virginia is safe to drink. Not one to three weeks till it’s safe to drink, but one to three weeks before we can determine if it MIGHT be safe.

            The poisonous spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol in the Elk River occurred on the ninth of January, over six weeks ago, and we might have to wait another three weeks before we can determine any amount of safety of this water. In the meantime we’ve had school closings and businesses straining to stay open.

            Back in 2012 an organization called United For Coal got turnout in the hundreds, perhaps thousands to “take a stand for coal” against an imaginary “war on coal” that was to be blamed on Barack Obama as he ran for reelection. Where are those people now? Do they not have any concern for themselves, their neighbors, and their children as they are denied basic drinkable water? Those folks lined highways carrying signs and wearing bright yellow T-shirts. A United For Coal website claims that our government, is committing, “Regional Genocide” in relation to Appalachia and the coal region. The site goes on to say, “They have summarily executed the entire coal industry thru (sic) overreaching environmental regulation.”

Line up, wear T-shirts, and wave flags for coal and Mitt Romney while your water gets poisoned

I try to avoid similar over-the-top rhetoric—like using the word genocide when I’m not talking about historical situations in Rwanda and Nazi Germany—as the United For Coal site does. But think about it for a while, what comes closer to genocide than poisoning drinking water for 300,000 people? Where are these protesters? Where are their signs and T-shirts? If you’re going to line up along highways and freeways and wave to supporters as they drive by and honk their horns, what does it take to motivate you? A 100-foot stream buffer rule as part of surface mining regulations, or not being able to bath for weeks on end and having to pick up plastic containers of water down at the shopping mall?

Fourth Poisonous Spill in Appalachia This Year

So now there is a second toxic spill in North Carolina's Dan River from the decommissioned Duke Energy power plant. So how many toxic spills have gone into the waters of Appalachia this year? Four?

            And it’s only February.

Coal ash in the streams now a common sight in Appalachia?

More Bad Water-and Bad Business and Bad Politics-in Appalachia

The days, weeks, and yes, the months are passing by and still the drinking water in southern West Virginia remains questionable. Schools were in session yesterday, though it was Presidents’ Day. Even still, students at Grandview Elementary School in North Charleston were sent home early after teachers at the school said that they smelled the licorice smell characteristic of the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol that was spilled into the Elk River, a source of drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians, back in January. Students at the school complained of headaches.

            West Virginians have poisoned water, but at least they have been warned off by the licorice smell. North Carolinians have no instant way to tell if their water is fouled. The toxic mercury, lead, selenium, and arsenic that wound up in their water as a result of the coal ash spill in the Dan River on the third of this month don’t readily give off tell-tale fumes when they have reached toxic levels in drinking water. So should they trust state regulators and business executives when they tell their state lawmakers that their water is safe to drink? Seriously, would you feel safe drinking the water that came out of the Dan River?

            And in a typical George W. Bush type of delaying tactic—the 43^rd president repeatedly said that legislation and action on global warming should commence once more research had been performed—North Carolina state legislators said that they lacked sufficient information to do anything and months would pass before solutions to the problem became clear to them.

            Tons and tons of toxic coal ash poured into one of your rivers. Coal ash has been around since people started burning the fossil fuel; folks have known about lead and arsenic being toxic for hundreds, even thousand of years; and you need a few more months to get clear on this topic?

            The New York Times has a pretty good take on things in North Carolina. As I touched on the cozy relationship between utilities and North Carolina regulators before, the NYT editorial board notes how the state protected Duke Energy in three lawsuits brought by environmental groups over the company’s coal ash storage facilities. In light of the disasters in West Virginia and North Carolina, the National Geographic asks appropriately if the water is good to drink in the rest of the country. After all, it is not only coal ash and 4-methylcyclohexane methanol to poison our rivers and streams. CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) can put things like coliform and e-coli in water. Click here and you’ll see the number of these meat factories that dot the land just in Ohio.

 

When you get a whole bunch of livestock in one place like this, the rain can create runoff problems big time photo naturalgrocers.com

And this story intrigued me. The Jewish community of Charleston has responded to the water crisis in their city, and yet they admit that their response is not as vibrant as what you might expect from a similar temple or synagogue in another city. It seems that no matter what, whether you attend a church, synagogue, mosque, living in the Mountain State saps folks of their sense of community.

The Winners and Losers in Appalachia

It looks like somebody at least is doing his job when it comes to the toxic spill in North Carolina. The United States Attorney’s Office in Raleigh, North Carolina issued grand jury subpoenas to Duke Energy, the company that owns and ran the retired power plant that spilled between 50,000 and 82,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River, and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

            The subpoenas are asking for emails, memos, and reports related to the spill that occurred nearly two weeks ago. The subpoenas also want information on the state of North Carolina’s oversight of Duke Energy’s 30 other coal ash dumps.

            It turns out that environmental groups had tried to force Duke to clear out leaky coal ash dumps, suing the energy company under terms of the Clean Water Act. In every case, the state of North Carolina blocked the lawsuits. Do you think that the subpoenas have anything to do with this?

            One of the most graphic and sickening pieces of journalism on mountaintop removal is published today over at businessinsider.com. Rightly, they identify this destruction as a product of addiction, our addiction to cheap coal. WARNING: these are graphic and disturbing images. You might think twice before clicking.

            The same website also examines the paradox that is mountaintop removal. Even while billions of tons of coal are being dug out of the mountains of Appalachia, coal jobs have sharply declined in the last couple of years. The article cites the booming of gas production, which is true in this case, as well as environmental regulation, which is false in this regard, as the causes of the downturn.  Quoted in the article is Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association. He says, “There's a gross inconsistency, in our view, of this administration's insistence that it wants to create high-wage jobs and more of them, and the reality that their policies are having on the employment marketplace.”

This is regulated, Mr. Popovich?

The canard of environmental regulation reducing coal jobs is risible. If you had the fortitude to click on the images of mountaintop mining, you can easily see that environmental regulation of this type of mining is nonexistent. As West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller recently told NPR, when it comes to coal and West Virginia, he says, “So the industries always win, the people always lose.”

From Ken Ward Writing in the Charleston Gazette: Hearing Provides Few Answers on Water Safety

Hearing provides few answers on water safety  - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Ken Ward covered yesterday’s Congressional hearing on the toxic spill that poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 West Virginians last month. The link above takes you to his story. A month after the spill, no one, not a single official, would say that the water is now safe to drink.

OOPS! Sorry, You're Water's Not Safe To Drink After All

North Carolina officials said water from the Dan River was safe to drink.

This sounds familiar. A toxic is spilled in a river; residents are warned about drinking the water; later officials declare that the water is safe to drink; then, big surprise, the water is found to still be poisonous.

            This scenario played itself out in southern West Virginia this past month, where a chemical spill poisoned the drinking water for 300,000 residents. The water was declared unsafe, then safe, then unsafe again. Now the very same story is playing itself out in North Carolina, where a leak spilled between 50,000 and 82,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan River last week. Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium, all of which are toxic. Officials in North Carolina declared the water safe to drink on the third of this month, the day on which the coal ash spill had initially occurred. The officials now confess that the water was still toxic when they had declared it safe for drinking, saying that their erroneous nihil obstat for the water was due to “an honest mistake.”

            Well, well, well, “an honest mistake.” When they say this, do they think that it makes it OK? “Sorry, folks. We made a little goof about your drinking water. Hope it’s no biggie.” Is that what they are saying? From this LA Times story, it doesn’t seem like anybody is particularly contrite. It doesn’t seem like anybody’s job is on the line for his or her “honest mistake.”

            I guess I’ll side with Senator Jay Rockefeller, who admits that after working with the coal companies for decades, he doesn’t trust them in the slightest. Officials in West Virginia say the water is safe, but Rockefeller says that he’s not drinking it.

Congresswoman Capito To Hold Hearings On the Elk River Toxic Spill

This is something to keep an eye on. Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, who represents West Virginia’s Second District—which includes Charleston and much of the area affected by last month’s toxic spill—will be holding hearings tomorrow morning on the spill.

            Witnesses include Gary Southern, the president of Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the spill that poisoned water for 300,000 West Virginia residents, as well as representatives from Homeland Security, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, and other officials.

            No one representing the people affected by the chemical spill is scheduled to speak at this hearing, nor will there be any attendees who represent environmental groups.

UPDATE 2/10/14: I don't see this in any of the press from this hearing, but this is good news from the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. Bowing to pressure from activists and citizens, public comments were added o this hearings agenda, and the testimony of Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and a critic of the official handling of this disaster, was entered into the Congressional Record. A very small victory, but a victory nonetheless!