Chemical Leaks Into Water System. Governor Declares State of Emergency.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has issued a state of emergency for nine counties after a chemical leak in Kanawha County Thursday morning.

The state of emergency includes West Virginia American Water customers in Kanawha, Cabell Boone, Putnam, Lincoln, Logan, Clay, Roane and Jackson counties.

Click HERE for full story.

Honestly, I cannot recall nor can I think of when this has happened before around here.

This has been ongoing since around 10:30 this morning when firefighters with Sissonville and Charleston go the original call for a strange smell in the area of Barlow Drive between the city limits and the I-77/I-79 split. Its an ongoing situation that has caused the State of West Virginia to declare this state of emergency. The state of emergency was declared sometime around 6PM this evening. Grocery and hardware stores have ran out of bottled water just in Kanawha County alone. Police have been sent to the stores to keep control and there have been no reports of violence in my area. Both the National Guard and FEMA are flying bottled water in as I type this. Right now, around 200,000 to 250,000 residents that are served by West Virginia American Water with myself included that are currently affected by this spill. They are saying that this may be cleaned up in two days at the earliest.

The nine counties that are affected.
1. Boone
2. Cabell
3. Clay
4. Jackson
5. Kanawha (Including the City of Charleston)
6. Lincoln
7. Logan
8. Putnam
9. Roane

The chemical that caused all this is 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol. It is a chemical solution that is used in the coal preparation process. This chemical is used in what they call a "freeze proofing" solution. What this does is that it keeps coal from clumping together when the temperature drops below freezing. When water comes in contact with it, this chemical will gel and expand. Therefore, making any sort of filtration process that would normally remove dirt and chemicals from the water supply useless in removing the chemical. You cannot boil this out of the water either due to the methanol compound in it.

My heart goes out to all of you! Good luck!

Another prime example of 'Better Living Through Modern Chemistry'.

Now they will spend a gazillion dollars investigating what happened, another gazillion on why it happened, then another gazillion on a study to prevent future occurrences.
When (way down the road) that's all done, and a gazillion dollar review board has analyzed the data, they will spend a gazillion dollars implementing safety procedures that should have been in place from the beginning.

reply to post by gimmefootball400


What a mess! How in the world are they going to be able to clean this up?

This is why I keep a lot of bottled around! That reminds me, I need to get some more tomorrow!

Believe it or not, it's actually not all that crazy up here right now. People have in fact been mostly calm about the situation from what I'm seeing and hearing. Seems like most people around here are taking this situation in stride.

nugget1
Another prime example of 'Better Living Through Modern Chemistry'.

Now they will spend a gazillion dollars investigating what happened, another gazillion on why it happened, then another gazillion on a study to prevent future occurrences.
When (way down the road) that's all done, and a gazillion dollar review board has analyzed the data, they will spend a gazillion dollars implementing safety procedures that should have been in place from the beginning.

You are probably the same guy that would of bitched and moaned, when your electricity went out because the electric company didn't use this chemical to prevent the coal used at the electric plant from clumping...

reply to post by gimmefootball400


So any weird or anomalous events you can relate, strange men in black sedans or weird sightings in the recent past?
Anything peculiar in the history of the affected water way?

reply to post by gimmefootball400

You cannot boil this out of the water either due to the methanol compound in it.

It is non-polar, so the amount that is in the water supply might very, very small. If it's in a cup mixed 50/50 with water, the two would not mix. The absorption rate into water is 3-4%.

Link

You can't boil it, but you could distill it.

gimmefootball400
Believe it or not, it's actually not all that crazy up here right now. People have in fact been mostly calm about the situation from what I'm seeing and hearing. Seems like most people around here are taking this situation in stride.

I'm not sure of the total population affected but I would feel safe in saying several thousand. On that note, how do several thousand people "take this situation in stride"? They SHOULD be up in arms about it. How simple was it to pollute a large water source for the many. That's not a question, it's a fact. Next time, it might not be so determinable and people could die.

How exactly does that chemical LEAK into a main water source?

reply to post by Thorneblood


3 Threads, but the more information the better on this one. W. Va. Gov Declares Emergency After Chemical Spill January 9th, 2014

Did find a MSDS for it. www.abovetopsecret.com... MSDS

And had one post of minor earthquakes all over the area. www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thorneblood
reply to post by gimmefootball400

 

So any weird or anomalous events you can relate, strange men in black sedans or weird sightings in the recent past?
Anything peculiar in the history of the affected water way?

There's been nothing peculiar going on around here that I'm aware of. The only thing that has went on around here was that it got real cold Monday and Tuesday. There hasn't been any Men In Black sightings around here that I know of for decades. However, this area was were Union Carbide opened up there first chemical plant in Kanawha County back in the 1920s. That plant has since been closed and torn down. The only thing up that part of the county now that shows any remnants of its industrialized past is the old Elk Refinery at Clendenin that has been closed since the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

donlashway
reply to post by Thorneblood

 

3 Threads, but the more information the better on this one. W. Va. Gov Declares Emergency After Chemical Spill January 9th, 2014

Did find a MSDS for it. www.abovetopsecret.com... MSDS

And had one post of minor earthquakes all over the area. www.abovetopsecret.com...

edit on 10-1-2014 by donlashway because: (no reason given)

edit on 10-1-2014 by donlashway because: (no reason given)

See, the problem I have with this is that most of you are not from here. So you guys probably aren't getting the constant updates that we are getting from the Office of Emergency Management, State of West Virginia, National Guard, and the local media outlets. We got an update in the past half an hour to an hour stating that the leak has been fixed. There is a press conference that is scheduled to start in the next ten to fifteen minutes. You can watch those press conferences by clicking here, here, and here.

reply to post by gimmefootball400


We all should seek the truth about this. Just watched a NBC national noon news feed that said ,"2 gallons into the river".
NY Times article claims 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol ," non-toxic".
Best story, most information is from the LA Times.
Local information is the best, unless there is economic motive to paint a rosy pic.
I live on the Gulf and will add it to our chemical soup list.

nugget1
Another prime example of 'Better Living Through Modern Chemistry'.

Now they will spend a gazillion dollars investigating what happened, another gazillion on why it happened, then another gazillion on a study to prevent future occurrences.
When (way down the road) that's all done, and a gazillion dollar review board has analyzed the data, they will spend a gazillion dollars implementing safety procedures that should have been in place from the beginning.

Just another perfect example of just how great that new "clean coal" stuff really is. About as clean as a pig in a mud hole!

reply to post by Flatfish


The more that I think about it the more I realize it. Coal is one of the cleanest means other than solar, wind, and hydroelectric power that we have. I mean I really do believe that most people would rather have a coal fired generating station in their backyard given the nuclear option. I'll take a coal fired plant over a nuclear power station any day of the week.

gimmefootball400
reply to post by Flatfish

 

The more that I think about it the more I realize it. Coal is one of the cleanest means other than solar, wind, and hydroelectric power that we have. I mean I really do believe that most people would rather have a coal fired generating station in their backyard given the nuclear option. I'll take a coal fired plant over a nuclear power station any day of the week.

Actually, I'm not a huge fan of either method. They're both extremely "dirty" in more ways than I can count, but I have more personal experience with coal.

You may not believe this but, (a lot like natural gas) the actual burning of the coal in the power plant is probably the cleanest part of the entire process.

I've handled literally millions of tons of coal as a longshoreman during my 32 yrs. in the industry and I can tell you this, it's some nasty stuff and there aren't too many things that are dirtier. Furthermore, the mining end of the deal doesn't look much better as the entire process is haunted by environmental contamination issues.

The problem is, we don't need either one of those energy sources, at least not according to professor Mark Jacobson from Stanford. Kinda of a long read, but well worth it;

www.alternet.org...

The testing that the National Guard conducted yesterday revealed that the parts per million count had in fact went down from what it was on Thursday night. Down from two parts per million Thursday night to around 1.5 to 1.7 parts per million Friday morning and it had been raining Thursday night and into Friday morning. Now comes Saturday morning and it is raining fairly decently and judging by what I've seen on the radar. This rain is going to be here for a while and hopefully it helps dilute this chemical even more than what it has over the past 24 hours.

At least we can hope it does.......