RT NewsA West Virginia community hoping to determine whether its drinking water is safe after a catastrophic chemical spill will likely be left with serious doubts after the state governor said he could not confidently answer that question.
“We’ve been in this thing for 11 days. It’s a very complicated issue. I’m not a scientist, you know,” said Governor Earl Ray Tomblin.
“I have to rely on the best information that I have,” he added. “My major concern for the last 11 days has been the health and safety of our residents.”
Tomblin was speaking at a press conference on Monday, just two days after a “do not use” ban was lifted, meaning that West Virginians could use their tap and bath water for the first time since Crude MCHM leaked from a Freedom Industries plant. Residents were instructed not to consume any water, even if it was filtered or boiled.
Yet the “do not use” mandate was lifted in other areas of West Virginia before Saturday and residents complained that their much-needed water came out of the faucets in a deep yellow tone. Approximately 300,000 people were affected in all, although Gov. Tomblin said that the decision to begin consuming the water again was ultimately a personal one.
“It’s your decision,” he said. “If you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking with this water then use bottled water. I’m not going to say absolutely, 100 percent that everything is safe. But what I can say is if you do not feel comfortable, don’t use it.”
The number of medical complaints surged when the spill began on January 9. West Virginians across nine counties complained about rashes, stomach aches, and other issues. Whether MCHM is carcinogenic is unknown.
The governor said more than once that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the water is safe as long as it contains less than one part per million of the coal-cleaning chemical. However, outside experts warned that pregnant women and children in particular should continue drinking bottled water until more is known about the current situation.
Eastman Chemical, a company that produces MCHM, admitted that “this was not one of the worst compounds out there – but not one of the most benign ones either.”
Governor Tomblin said the state is doing everything it can to process all the information, although much remains unknown.
As a plumber, I have to wonder about the effects of these chemicals on the water lines of every house/business affected by this “accident.”
Even when the water clears up (in a couple of years…..maybe) will there still be a residual of chemicals in your water lines? Are these chemicals corrosive enough to eat through PVC and copper lines?
I comment about this possible future problem with the water lines, and not about the Politician in the story, mainly because it’s obvious to see that Earl Tomblin is doing more to remove himself away from responsibility for this event, and has done nothing to get to the bottom of what happened, ie: who ordered this spill to occur in the first place??
Luis Pasteur’s death bed confession, the microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything. I suspect this holding tank has been leaking a very long time.
Started out as a very small leak and finally evolved to a major leak.
For these corporations it is just money; for the innocent American going
on about their business, it is their lives.
What’s so important to recognize is that corporations which were originally chartered by the King – the founding of corporations by the way were in 13th, 14th, 15th century Europe, they were created as institutions and mechanisms to exploit, colonize, rape, I mean are we getting the picture here? The whole point of it was to vacuum out the resources, including human beings as slaves from Africa, Asia, later North and South America. They are institutions of brutal oppression. Is anyone surprised that they act that way today? They were designed to do that. They do what they were designed to do. The difference is that corporations were originally designed by the monarchs, the kings. The kings were sovereign, they had the ability to create them. This new idea this new schema creates the idea that “we the people” are completely sovereign, state governments now, as the representatives, now charter these corporations.
My point is, under this framework, the corporation has to be understood to be on this side [the side with government], the reason, because government still creates these corporations. State governments charter them, state governments create them, they are creatures of the law, they are creatures of our government and properly understood, they are public institutions. A serious conversation needs to be had about whether these institutions should even be allowed in a democratic society. But, regardless of whether we allow them or not let’s be clear that they are public institutions, they are not private.