CHARLESTON (USA): The White House has issued a federal disaster
declaration in West Virginia, where a chemical spill that may have
contaminated tap water has led officials to tell at least 300,000 people
not to bathe, brush their teeth or wash their clothes.
The US attorney in West Virginia said on Friday that federal
authorities are opening an investigation into what caused the spill that
tainted a river and shut down much of the state’s capital city and
surrounding counties.
The chemical, a foaming agent used in the coal preparation process,
leaked Thursday from a tank at Freedom Industries, overran a containment
area and went into the Elk River. Schools and restaurants closed, and
grocery stores sold out of bottled water.
“It was chaos, that's what it was,” convenience store cashier Danny
Cardwell said. Officials said they were not sure what hazard the spill
posed to residents. “I don't know if the water is not safe,” West
Virginia American Water company president Jeff McIntyre said.
Kanawha County emergency officials said the chemical is called
4-methylcyclohexane methanol. McIntyre said the chemical isn't lethal in
its strongest form.
The tank that leaked holds at least 40,000 gallons, said Tom Aluise, a
state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman. “We’re
confident that no more than 5,000 gallons escaped” through a breach in a
concrete wall that serves as a containment area, he said.
“Our understanding is it's not an especially toxic material. It's not dangerous necessarily to be around,” he said.
According to a fact sheet from biotechnology company Fisher
Scientific, the chemical is harmful if swallowed and causes eye and skin
irritation. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, dizziness,
headaches, diarrhoea, reddened skin, itching and rashes, according to a
news release from the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
Officials from Freedom, a manufacturer of chemicals for the mining,
steel, and cement industries, haven't commented since the spill, but a
woman who answered the phone at the company said it would issue a
statement Friday.
Bill Hines with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the
emergency declaration allows for direct federal assistance in dealing
with the spill.
The West Virginia National Guard planned to distribute bottled
drinking water to emergency services agencies in the nine affected
counties. About 100,000 water customers, or 300,000 people total, were
affected, state officials said.
Early Friday, Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety
spokesman Lawrence Messina said he wasn’t aware of any hospitals closing
and that area medical centers “seemed to have adequate water supply, at
least for the short term.”—AP
