Protecting the Water Supply

The problem of water contamination in West Virginia is now declared to have passed (although looking at photos of the water coming out of taps there looks less than appetizing to either drink or bath in), but the episode is a wake up call.  We didn't hear it when it came from residents in areas where fracking has been going on, poinsoning water supplies, but now we have a chemical spill contaminating the water supply of the western side of West Virginia, and there was no real idea of how long it will last because so little was known about the chemical that was spilled, 4-methyl cyclohexane methanol, and what effect it would have on humans and for how long.

The company, Freedom Industries, has a storage tank of this chemical, which is used to wash coal before it is burned, that is near the Elk River.  They were not the ones who identified the leak--the chemical smells like licorice, and somebody smelled and got suspicious.  By that time at least 7,500 gallons had been spilled into the water supply.  Because the company does not manufacture the chemical, they are not required to have regular inspections of their facilities.  So beyond the five days without running water, the real fear has to be that this will be the norm rather than the exception as the climate changes, weather patterns change, and water becomes the resource that is most scarce.  Let's not look back on this time, where we sacrificed water for fossil fuels and regret it.