Tag: Chemical Spill

Evacuation Lifted In Martinsburg 24 Hours After Accidental Chemical Mixture

Updated on Jan. 2, 2019 at 1:40 p.m.

The evacuation for the .5 mile radius surrounding the Sewage Treatment Plant at 500 E. John St. was lifted on Dec. 24, 2019.

All streets were reopened and residents were free to return to their homes, according to the Berkeley County Homeland Security and Emergnecy Management.

In a statement from the agency, residents were encouraged to open doors and windows to allow air flow and the dissipation of odors.

Fire and police units were stationed in various neighborhoods to assist residents.

Original Post:

An area surrounding a wastewater treatment plant in West Virginia was evacuated Monday in response to an accidental mixture of chemicals, police said.

A one-half-mile radius in Martinsburg was evacuated after the chemicals mixed during a tanker offload, Berkeley County Public Safety said on Twitter.

Two people who were at the scene were taken to a hospital, said Lora Lipscomb, public information officer for West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, but she was not sure whether they were injured or taken as a precaution.

A school set up as a shelter had 153 people early Monday afternoon, she said.

Officials went door-to-door and wore gas masks as they notified homes and businesses of the evacuation, news outlets reported.

Gov. Jim Justice ordered West Virginia’s State Emergency Operations Center to partial activation in response. State and local services responded as well as units from several Maryland locations.

Authorities were investigating the chemicals’ effects, Lipscomb said.

Emissions from the plant should cause only “mild respiratory irritation” without delayed or long-term effects, Berkeley County Public Safety said. Anyone with nausea and vomiting was advised to seek immediate medical attention.

The agency was monitoring the gas and sent a chemical release response team to neutralize it.

“The evacuation will be in place until further analysis can be completed to confirm the dispersal of the chemical, and that the area is safe to enter,” the agency said.

Claim Forms Being Accepted in West Virginia Chemical Spill

Residents and businesses in nine West Virginia counties left without tap water during a 2014 chemical spill can start filing claims.

According to a website set up to handle claims, forms were being accepted both online and by mail started Wednesday.

A federal judge last month tentatively approved a revised settlement to a class-action lawsuit over the spill that left up to 300,000 people without tap water for up to nine days.

In January 2014, a tank at now-defunct Freedom Industries in Charleston leaked thousands of gallons of coal-cleaning chemicals that got into West Virginia American Water’s treatment plant 1.5 miles downstream.

A final hearing on the settlement is scheduled for Jan. 9 in federal court in Charleston. The deadline for claims submissions is Feb. 21.

Three Years After the Elk River Chemical Spill, Advocates Continue to Work to Protect Drinking Water

Monday marks the third anniversary of the Elk River chemical spill that left more than 300,000 West Virginians without usable drinking water for more than a week.  The leak  originated at Freedom Industries just outside of Charleston.

 
 
After the spill, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill that required  125 public water systems across the state to write improved source water protection plans. Those plans included updated inventories of potential contamination sources as well as new contingency plans to respond effectively to potential spills. They also required the systems look at alternative water intakes so that if there was a problem with a primary intake they could still provide clean water to customers. 

 
Evan Hansen is an advisor to the WV Rivers Water Policy Workgroup. He said the main challenge now is implementing the laws that have been written. 

 
“The commission has a total of 17 recommendations that we will be providing to the legislature,” he said. “Some require changes to the state code or the state rules and some require additional appropriations – especially appropriations to the Bureau for Public Health that can get passed on to the local water systems to help with implementation.” 

 
Hansen worked on the 2014 legislation and says the bill was not a partisan issue then. He hopes the House and Senate will continue to work together to provide clean drinking water for West Virginians.  
 

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Tentative Deal Reached in West Virginia American Case

Lawyers say a tentative deal has been reached with West Virginia American Water Co in a class-action case over the company’s handling of the 2014 water crisis in the Kanawha Valley.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports no details were made public, but a judge has scheduled a Monday hearing when attorneys said more information is expected to be available.

Anthony Majestro, who represents plaintiffs in a separate group of state court cases also being settled, says the lawyers for all sides gave the judge “the outline of the terms of a potential settlement” during Friday’s meeting

More than 224,000 residents, more than 7,300 business owners and others were part of the class of plaintiffs certified more than a year ago for the lawsuit against West Virginia American and Eastman Chemical.

Judge Again Postpones Trial in Elk River Chemical Spill

A federal judge has again postponed the trial against the water company accused of insufficiently safeguarding West Virginia’s capital city from a chemical spill that polluted the drinking water of thousands of people in 2014.

According to court officials, U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver has moved jury selection from Friday to Monday.

Attorneys for Charleston-area residents and West Virginia American Water have been discussing a possible settlement.

Eastman Chemical, maker of the chemical, and plaintiffs’ lawyers reached a proposed settlement Thursday for undisclosed terms.

Settlements would apply to about 225,000 people and more than 7,000 businesses whose tap water was contaminated for several days. The chemical leaked from a storage tank of now bankrupt Freedom Industries into the Elk River in January 2014, upstream from the water system intake.

Judge Keeps Claims Against Chemical Maker in Spill Lawsuit

A month before a class-action lawsuit over a 2014 chemical spill is set to go to trial, a federal judge has declined to throw out allegations that partly blame chemical maker Eastman Chemical for polluting 300,000 people’s drinking water.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. in Charleston also ruled Monday that residents, businesses and workers suing over the January 2014 Elk River spill and the subsequent water crisis cannot pursue claims against American Water Workers Company Inc., the parent of West Virginia American Water, whose customers’ drinking water supply was contaminated in the incident.

The lawsuit says Eastman Chemical didn’t test its manufactured chemical properly or warn about potential health effects.

Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to start Oct. 25.

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