Search This Blog

Translate

Blog Archive

Middleboro Review 2

NEW CONTENT MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW 2

Toyota

Since the Dilly, Dally, Delay & Stall Law Firms are adding their billable hours, the Toyota U.S.A. and Route 44 Toyota posts have been separated here:

Route 44 Toyota Sold Me A Lemon



Thursday, February 6, 2014

Another MCHM Spill Reported at West Virginia's Freedom Industries

The cost of clean-up passed on to taxpayers!

A January 9 spill of 10,000 gallons of crude MCHM tainted the water supply of 300,000 residents for days. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A January 9 spill of 10,000 gallons of crude MCHM tainted the water supply of 300,000 residents for days. (photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Another MCHM Spill Reported at West Virginia's Freedom Industries

By Al Jazeera America
02 February 14

Spokesman for state environmental agency says cleanup crews at site of previous spill severed pipe, leaking more MCHM

subsequent MCHM chemical spill has been reported at Freedom Industries in West Virginia, local media sources said Friday, but state officials have said that the leak was contained before reaching the Elk River, sparing the already weary downstream residents. Test results from water samples taken from area schools, however, showed the continued presence of the chemical in five schools.
 
A spokesman for a West Virginia environmental agency said cleanup crews at the site of the previous chemical spill severed an underground pipe Thursday night. The pipe contained water and crude MCHM — the same chemical that contaminated the Elk River earlier this month.
 
An excavator ripped into the pipe, but officials said the MCHM was caught in a cutoff trench and did not reach the Elk River, local Charleston news station WCHS ABC 8 reported. MCHM is a chemical used to process coal — a major industry in the state.
 
The Department of Environmental Protection called it a "small amount," but declined to say how much was spilled. The spill was said to have "slowed to a trickle."
 
A Jan. 9 spill of 10,000 gallons of crude MCHM that reached the Elk River tainted the water supply of 300,000 residents in nine counties for days, triggering a state of emergency and a water ban. The ban was lifted last week, but many residents continued to complain of illness and were treated at area hospitals. Many also refuse to drink the water despite the lifting of the ban.
 
As part of ongoing tests of the drinking water in the area, the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Friday released the results of tests on water samples taken at 94 schools in five counties.
 
The tests, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, showed that the presence of the chemical remains in five schools more than two weeks after the initial spill.
 
According to Lawrence Messina, communications director for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, the five schools will undergo another round of flushing following the water tests.
 
"It is important for students, parents and educators to understand that the five schools highlighted by the most recent round of testing were well below the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls (CDC) recommended level, but were not yet at the more stringent screening level that the interagency team was directed to achieve beyond the CDC guidelines," said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Jim Phares.
 
The second round of flushing is expected to result in a undetectable level, below 10 parts per billion, which is 100 times more rigorous than the 1 part per million screening level required by the CDC for public health safety.
 
On Thursday, West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin requested that West Virginia American Water, the state's largest privately held water utility, offer more bottled water, since the state has spent nearly $890,000 on more than 17.5 million bottles of water.
 
"Immediately following West Virginia American Water's DO NOT USE order on Jan. 9, I began working ... to provide water and supplies to impacted citizens," Gov. Tomblin said in a press release.
"While the DO NOT USE order has been lifted, we continue to receive calls from constituents and organizations requesting water be made available to their communities. To address this need, I have asked West Virginia American Water Company to make available portable and bottled water."


From RSN:

William Boardman | Texas Supreme Court Poised to Save Planet
Keystone XL Pipeline. (photo: KETN)
William Boardman, Reader Supported News
Boardman writes: "Almost no one mentions the Texas Supreme Court case that could shut the pipeline down completely - since a court ruling for the appellant could mean that the pipeline was built on property to which the pipeline owner had no rights."
READ MORE

Through a Face Scanner Darkly
Betsy Morais, The New Yorker
Morais writes: "Soon enough, though, technology will see to it that we can no longer expect to disappear into a landscape of passing faces."
READ MORE

How Richard Nixon Reinvented American Warfare
Steven Casey, Salon
Casey writes: "As the public soured on Vietnam, Nixon rebooted U.S. military strategy - and paved the way for Iraq and Afghanistan."
READ MORE

George Lakoff on Communication: "Liberals Do Everything Wrong"
Zoe Williams, Guardian UK
Williams writes: "Progressives have got it wrong - and if they don't start to get it right, the conservatives will maintain the upperhand."
READ MORE

The Superbowl Is the Biggest Human Trafficking Event of the Year
Aaron CantĂș, AlterNet
CantĂș reports: "It is believed that America's biggest game is also the largest concentration of human slave laborers of the year."
READ MORE

Another MCHM Spill Reported at West Virginia's Freedom Industries
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "The Department of Environmental Protection called it a 'small amount,' but declined to say how much was spilled. The spill was said to have 'slowed to a trickle.'"
READ MORE

7 Facts That Weren't in the New State Department Report on Keystone XL
Ryan Koronowski, ThinkProgress
Koronowski reports: "Critics and supporters of the pipeline alike have awaited the report, ever since President Obama last year singled out carbon pollution as a parameter in Keystone's national interest calculation."
READ MORE

No comments: