An editorial from The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A year after the Elk River chemical spill, we are still coming to understand how completely unprepared state and federal agencies were for the disaster.
It was Jan. 9, 2014, when about 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to wash coal spilled from a Freedom Industry facility into the river just upstream from West Virginia American Water’s intake and distribution center, which supplies water for much of the greater Charleston area.
Ultimately, about 300,000 people in portions of nine counties were without water for some period of time, including the Culloden area of Cabell County.
Not surprisingly, it took a few hours to figure out what had happened and to identify the chemical. But in the days and weeks that followed, some very troubling problems surfaced.
Officials on both the state and federal level did not know much about the chemical, MCHM, and did not know how dangerous it was in drinking water. Utilities also struggled with how to flush the chemicals out of the water distribution system. For some residents and businesses it was weeks before the annoying odors went away, and months before the public began to regain confidence in the water quality.
It also became clear that the situation was the same with tens of thousands of tanks around the state…
