never guarantee that your water quality will
be completely protected, it is an awareness
and educational program just by the nature of
its existence, and
We will help you to identify and learn more
about any “potential contamination sources”
that may exist upstream from your surface
water intake or in your wellhead protection
area, and provide suggestions for possible
management of any sources that may be
identified. If the worst does happen, instead
of being blindsided and reacting to the
disaster, you may be a little more prepared
and will have developed a contingency plan
for mitigating the effect of a spill as part of
a Source Water or Wellhead Protection Plan.
In the meantime, there is plenty of blame, bad
publicity, loss of customer confidence, and
possibly long term effects from this spill to
go around. The chemical spilled, 4-HCHM, is
made by Eastman Chemical’s and according
to their material safety data sheet, or MSDS,
4-methylcyclohexanemethanol makes up 68
to 89 percent of Crude MCHM. The Eastman
MSDS also shows that CrudeMCHM includes
six other ingredients: 4-(methoxymethyl)
cyclohexanemethanol,
water,
methyl
4-methylcyclohexanecarboxylate, dimethyl
1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate, methanol and
1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol. It is a foaming
agent that is mixed with ground-up coal to
separate it from soil and rock particles. It
is also being reported that the company
was adding PPH or polyglycol ethers to the
mixture, which supposedly would have been
removed during the water treatment process.
The company blamed for the spill has filed
for bankruptcy, temporarily shielding them
from dozens of lawsuits, most by businesses
that were forced to shut down for days.
Some of the lawsuits in Kanawha County
Circuit Court against Freedom Industries,
Inc. also name West Virginia American Water
Company and Eastman Chemical. In the
bankruptcy documents, the company gives
a possible explanation for what caused the
spill: Freedom Industries says “a water line
burst during last week’s frigid temperatures,
the ground beneath a storage tank froze, and
some kind of object punctured a hole in its
side, causing it to leak.” The Water Company
is also being blamed for not shutting off the
intake quickly enough, so fingers are pointing
in all directions.
Some of the possible results that may come
from this whole mess – lawmakers are
pushing for more regulation of above-ground
storage tanks. They also want to require
contingency plans for water companies.
Emergency Response Plans were required for
most water systems under the Bioterrorism
Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, to
address threats from terrorism or other major
events. Specifics to regulate and inspect
storage facilities have been introduced and
a bill requiring state inspections of above-
ground chemical storage facilities, letting
states recoup costs for emergency responses
and setting industry standards for emergency
responses has been introduced in Congress.
Some of these solutions may help, but every
single watershed is unique with a different
set of characteristics. As Michael McNulty,
General Manager of Putnam Public Service
District, in Scott Depot, West Virginia so
eloquently put it in his testimony to the U. S.
Senate Committee on Environment and Public
Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife
on February 4, 2014 “…It is difficult to have
a federal regulatory solution to this issue.
Every one of the 51,651 U.S. drinking water
supplies has a unique set of vulnerabilities
and challenges, and if you apply a uniform
regulatory standard to mandate protection in
all of them, you will end up not addressing
the greatest risks in many communities, and
forcing many other communities to implement
unnecessary regulations that fail to address
their threats.” A thoughtful Source Water or
Wellhead Protection Plan with the support
and engagement of the local community
could help to identify a water system’s unique
challenges and vulnerabilities and implement
mechanisms to help prevent disaster.
References
Mattise, Jonathan, and Farrington, Brenda, Chemical spill
brings W.Va. capital to standstill
Associated Press, January 10, 2014.
Mattise, Jonathan, Company files for bankruptcy after
W.Va. spill, Associated Press, January 17, 2014.
Ward, Jr., Ken, Elk River leak included another
chemical,West Virginia Gazette, January 21, 2014.
Zuchino, David, West Virginia spill criticism grows amid
new fear over tainted water, Los Angeles Times, January
31, 2014
Testimony of Michael W. McNulty, General Manager,
Putnam Public Service District, Scott Depot, West Virginia,
Before the U. S. Senate committee on Environment and
Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife,
February 4, 2014.
Photo - The site of the Freedom Industries chemical spill.
via Flickr user iwasaround:
/
iwasaround/ iwasaround via Flickr
®
developing a [Source Water
Protection] plan could have
raised questions and maybe
generated a discussion about
how this disaster could have
been prevented.
Spring 2014 |
NCRWA.COM
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