2014 Elk River chemical spill official thread

[Lasher]

8. That's a good question, nobody seems to know.

I feel kinda sorry for Freedom Industries' President Gary Southern. It looks like he's being made into a scapegoat. I believe his company acquired the storage facility only a month ago and this chemical appears to have been seeping into the ground for - well, nobody knows how long. I personally blame government officials and WV American Water more than I do Freedom Industries. That is not to infer that Freedom is blameless.

How long would it have gone on if the chemical had been odorless? It's anybody's guess. My guess is, it would have gone on until the chemical tank ran dry. WV Air Quality Control is one of the heroes of the crisis. Good on your daughter and her organization for finding the leak.

As I'm sure you are aware, WV American Water didn't know about this until others told them about it. Their treatment plant used a charcoal filter that was doing nothing to block the contaminant after it was overloaded by its volume. Their water quality monitoring was clearly either ineffective or nonexistent.

Thank you for sharing this from your daughter's perspective. If there is anything more she has to add I wish you would socialize it here.