Posted on 01/09/2014 5:43:13 PM PST by Kartographer
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency Thursday in several counties because of a chemical spill into the Elk River. The advisory was expanded at night from five to eight counties. The state of emergency includes West Virginia American Water customers in Kanawha, Boone, Clay, Jackson, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties, according to NBC station WSAZ. Residents were told not to drink the water, bathe in it or cook with the water and only use it for flushing and fire emergencies. Boiling it will not remove the chemicals.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.nbcnews.com ...
Preppers’ PING!!
Sounds nasty.
There are a couple of those ringed-carbon benzene wannabees that are highly, highly carcinogenic.
So much so that you don’t even want to be in the same county if there is a spill near you!
Very concerned about this as most of my family lives in two of those counties.
4-methylcyclohexane methanol is NOT a “ringed-carbon benzene wanabee”. Cyclohexane and its derivatives are aliphatic compounds; benzene and its family are aromatics. These are two distinct classes of chemicals. This material is not toxic, much less carcinogenic.
4-methylcyclohexane methanol, was not toxic, according to those with the DEP. “The DEP has what they call an ‘objectionable’ level, it means it’s uncomfortable, it would not be pleasant at a certain odor threshold or a certain parts per million and it did reach that,” said C.W. Sigman, Kanawha County’s fire coordinator.
I don't want to be on the downstream of that.
Fine. Whatever floats your boat.
I had alot of chemistry as a kid, but never got way into the organic side.
And believe it or not, a lot of those carbon ring based chemicals are highly carcinogenic.
But then glucose fits that description also.
Meh. Flammable, fairly low flash point. Not terribly toxic. A lot like getting gasoline or raffinate in the water. A big expensive mess.
I’m fortunate. I live one county upstream from Clay.
My son’s team was supposed to travel there tomorrow night for a basketball game, but instead they switched the game to our county. When my son said it was because Clay didn’t have any water, I assumed that meant a pipe had burst because of the cold weather.
Pretty wild.
Several cousins and their kids in Logan
I don’t understand this, now that I’ve read the article.
The leak happened in Charleston, but if you choose all the roads that follow the Elk between Clay and Charleston, Google Maps says it’s 55 miles.
Maybe they’re just being cautious. Doesn’t seem like something could flow 55 miles upstream...
Prayers for all.
The water in Charleston has always tasted bad to me. I used to spend time with my grandparents in Charleston and could not drink it unless it was mixed with a drink mix.
And I was thankful we drank a lot of what my relatives call “pop” — RC was the name of it, I believe.
I don’t know what made the water taste bad, but there was a Union Carbide factory down at the Kanawaha River.
Or maybe it was just my imagination, because even the well water in the country made me gag.
Most of my kin are in the Kanawaha and Clay/Braxton areas. Hope everyone got the warning quickly.
How many times to say it - always have stored water and food. The only people who truly care if you live, is you/family. Always have the essentials of life to last two weeks and that’s a bare minimum. I live in town but can have good water and food for as long as it takes. Everyone can make a plan.
Thanks for posting that. There’s enough to worry about without panicking over an alcohol that floats. Right now the river immediately downstream (about a quarter mile from the spill) is flowing six millions gallons a minute.
Good to see that your county is not on the list.
my mom lived up pecks mill (between Chapmanville and Logan) for a few years. On my aunts property. The smell of sulfur in the water was so strong you would almost pass out when you turned on the hot water. Finally just before my aunt died they ran city water up the road.
The Kenawha is famous for chemical content and the Guyandotte for coal dust.
reread your e-mail. we had a grocery store in Logan and I grew up on RC Cola. I remember in 58 or so the Hawaiian Punch salesman came in and I started on that. Oh well. Southern breakfast RC Cola and a moon pie.
My dad had a place in the mountains with a well that had enough sulfur to make you smell like rotten eggs after a shower. He made a “filter” that was basically an refrigerator sized box with boards arranged in levels a couple of inches apart, so that the water coming from the pump ran at a slight slope across one, then the other way across the next, and so on to the bottom, then into the tank. It let the sulfur gas escape and got rid of about 95% of the smell and taste.
You are right, it’s being blown up to be a big deal so as to give our democrat gov. political power along with the democrat party in an election year. The plant CEO stated from the outset that the spill is not toxic. It’s all about power as usual. The people affected are so clueless they don’t question any of it.
Not many should have been affected. It’s a big deal because the democrats never let a crisis go to waste. Remember, WV is replacing Rocky this year, and the Tea Parties are making inroads into this die-hard democrat welfare state. They will do anything they can come up with to stop the conservatives from kicking their butts. They are just like the bunch in D.C. they have just changed the rules in the State House so that the Repubs. can’t bring up ammendments. They are dug in so deep it’s going to take us a long time to dig them out one by one.
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