crude MCHM Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Key Health Players Look Back At The 2014 Water Crisis

Ten years ago, a state of emergency and water advisory was issued for nine West Virginia counties following a chemical spill in the Elk River.

On Jan. 9, 2014, a state of emergency and water advisory was issued for nine West Virginia counties following a chemical spill of Methylcyclohexane Methanol (MCHM) from Freedom Industries, Inc. into the Elk River. MCHM is used in the coal preparation process.

State environmental officials estimated that 7,500 gallons of crude MCHM leaked into the Elk River.

West Virginia American Water told more than 100,000 customers (about 300,000 people) in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties not to ingest, cook, bathe or wash with the water from their tap, even after boiling. Water in this coverage area was OK’d only for flushing and fire protection.

On Jan. 13, 2014, DHHR Secretary Karen Bowling announced at a press conference that 14 people were admitted to the hospital, 231 people were treated and released in connection to the water contamination. West Virginia Poison Control received more than 1,000 calls. No deaths were connected to the spill.

Then-director of West Virginia Poison Control Elizabeth Scharman said calls were steady from when the initial “do not use” order was first put into place.

As the ban was lifted in areas, Scharman said the center received calls about an increased odor, but that was expected.

The center evaluated each call individually and suspected that some cases of skin irritation could be caused by constant hand sanitizer use. Scharman said excessive testing would be needed to confirm the source of the irritation.

On Jan. 15, 2014, the Health Department consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It recommended pregnant women continue drinking bottled water until there were no longer detectable levels of the chemical in the water distribution system.

The CDC reaffirmed previous advice that it did not anticipate any adverse health effects from levels less than 1 ppm.

A week after the spill, the CDC fielded questions from local and national media on a conference call.

“This is a dynamic and evolving event,” Dr. Vikas Kapil, chief medical officer for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, said repeatedly on the conference call.

Kapil said only a few animal studies on MCHM exist and CDC scientists were working to make summaries of those studies available to the media and the public. He also pointed out that studies were not available on the chemical as it relates to cancer or reproductive health in animals.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Water Research Institute, described the chemical leaked from Freedom Industries into the Elk River, crude MCHM, as a kind of detergent used to clean coal, known as a surfactant.

“You’re trying to separate the coal from the non-burnable stuff like shales, clays, stuff like that,” Ziemkiewicz said. “The process takes advantage of the fact that coal is lighter than these clays and rocks, but they have to be separated. So you use these surfactants to help that separation process.”

He said that water ends up in slurry impoundments, and then often is recycled to wash more coal.

“MCHM, which is of course, methylcyclohexane methanol,” Ziemkiewicz said. “It’s a relatively volatile compound, and when I say that, that means it tends to first of all, float on top of the water, and since it floats on top of the water, and it’s volatile, so it’s lighter than water, less dense than water, it floats on top just like an oil would. And it tends to be volatile, which means that if you give it a chance, the MCHM disperses as a gas into the atmosphere.”

One of Ziemkiewicz’s crews was on-site at Freedom Industries to study the spill in 2014.

“We mobilized the crew, one of our crews here at the water research institute, to go downstream from the spill point and measure how much MCHM was found in the Elk and in the Kanawha rivers,” Ziemkiewicz said. “And what we found there was pretty much dispersed fairly quickly and was non-detectable by the time it got to the Ohio River.”

Ziemkiewicz said one of the things that went wrong during the spill was that the water intake at the water treatment plant remained on, pulling the chemical compound along with water into the water distribution system for nine counties.

“The MCHM was essentially trapped in these distribution pipes, and it took a long time to flush that MCHM back out of the system,” Ziemkiewicz said.

Mike McCawley, a clinical associate professor in WVU’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, said a group of his students volunteered to work in the Charleston area during the spill.

“They were going around helping to inform people, and also taking information about what people were doing to kind of protect themselves,” McCawley said. “So it was a time when we got to talk a lot more about chemical exposures, environmental chemical exposures that people had not thought about before.”

McCawley called it a time of stress and worry for the state.

“It was a difficult time, because both drinking and bathing are something that people were worried about doing because they didn’t know what the long-term health effects were,” McCawley said.

The 2014 water crisis spurred the creation of WVU’s School of Public Health which was previously the Department of Community Medicine.

“One of the recommendations that Dr. (Rahul) Gupta, in fact made, was that there should be a School of Public Health at West Virginia University, which was the impetus for turning our Department of Community Medicine into a school, a whole school of public health,” McCawley said.

While the water crisis left thousands without water for weeks, McCawley said he has not heard of any long-term health effects from the spill.

At the time of the spill, the short-term health complaint McCawley heard most often was headaches.

“Headaches were a big thing that people were complaining of,” McCawley said. “That was probably, I think, top of the list.”

While some policies and practices have changed since the 2014 spill, McCawley believes there is still plenty of room for improvement.

“There needs to be regular good inspections, and reporting that is done from that,” McCawley said. “We found that the leaks that were occurring, didn’t seem to get taken seriously, as soon as they possibly could have.”

McCawley also emphasized the need for “inflammation” as a symptom to be taken more seriously and to report exposure to any chemical to a doctor.

“We know inflammation can lead to a lot of things,” McCawley said. “We don’t know how much inflammation leads to what necessarily, but we know it leads to all sorts of nasty things. And so we should keep it in mind and maybe make sure our doctors know that.”

By Jan. 17, 2014, the last of the “do not use” water restrictions were lifted for the last customer area in West Virginia American Water’s Kanawha Valley district.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Judge Denies Water Crisis Legal Settlement, Asks for Changes

A federal judge in West Virginia has declined to grant preliminary approval of a $151 million settlement of class-action litigation stemming from the January 2014 water crisis, saying he wanted changes made to the deal.

Local news outlets report that Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. issued a 93-page order Thursday, two months after court filings made public terms of the deal with West Virginia American Water Co. and Eastman Chemical.

The proposal would have distributed the money among residents, businesses and other entities like non-profit organizations whose drinking water was contaminated by the chemical spill at Freedom Industries, which affected more than 300,000 people in the Kanawha Valley.

Copenhaver raised concerns about how the terms awarded money, timeliness of the settlements and legal fees.

Both sides can refile an agreement.

From Springs to Spills: How Does West Virginia's Water Taste to International Judges?

Appalachia is no stranger to industrial or environmental disasters that affect our water. Because of crumbling water infrastructure in many coalfield communities, folks often turn to bottled water for regular use.

But not all bottled water is equal. At least that’s according to judges at the 25th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting & Competition, which took place February 19-22. The competition judges the taste of bottled water, purified water, and municipal city waters from across the world were judged.

At the water tasting and competition this year, there was some talk about the recent derailment in Fayette County.

“Well, it’s tragic. What has happened in West Virginia. And two years in a row right before the water tasting, it’s almost ironic,” said Arthur Von Wiesenberger, referring to the timing of last year’s competition, which took place about a month after the Elk River chemical spill. Wiesenberger who has trained the judges at Berkeley Springs every year since the competition started in 1990.

“I guess on the good side, it brings an enormous amount of awareness to the importance of water. And how we take clean pure water for granted until you do have a disaster. And then you do realize that this is something that’s very subject to contamination and to problems.”

Wiesenberger added that throughout the competition’s twenty-five years, some of West Virginia’s water has been judged as the best tasting water in the world.

The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting & Competition judges bottled water and municipal water. And guess which city won the best tasting water in the world, back in 1991, and 1993, 1994? Charleston West Virginia.

Yes, that same water, which last year became notorious across the globe for its poisonous taste of liquorice-infused MCHM– that water previously won gold medals at the International Water Tasting Competition.

And since last year’s chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia, storekeepers say they’ve seen an increase in the number of bottled water sales.

Volunteers in Kanawha County helped with water distribution during last year’s water crisis that affected the drinking water of 300,000 people.

Allan Hathaway owns the Purple Onion grocery store at the Capitol Market. “Bottled water sales have been up over the last year. A lot of consumers are switching to bottled water, not only because of the water issue but also cutting back on soft drinks.”

The Purple Onion does sell spring water from West Virginia, including water from Sweet Springs in Monroe County.

In previous years, the Sweet Springs water company won four international first-place awards for the best-tasting water at the Berkley Springs Intentional Water Tasting and Competition.

Sweet Springs Valley Water Company is located near the site of one of West Virginia’s historic mineral springs hotels. Before her death, 102-year old Pauline Baker told The Traveling 219 Project what it was like to grow up in Sweet Springs during the 1920s. She described those days gone by, when fine ladies used to bathe in the mineral waters wearing suits down to their knees, and guests from all over the world used to dine in the great Jeffersonian Hall. When the hotel was abandoned during the Great Depression, she said the neighborhood children used to go down to swim in the mineral pools.

Sweet Springs is just one example of the many old springs resorts that used to exist throughout West Virginia. Berkeley Springs is also home to one of those early resorts and is still a popular tourist destinations today. The Greenbrier is another.

However celebrated West Virginia’s water has been throughout the years, this year many overseas companies outranked local water companies in the bottled water categories. 1st place for the best bottled water this year was awarded to Fengari Platinum, Platinum Class Mineral Water, Athens, Greece. Best Sparkling water also went to a Greek company– Daphne-Ultra Premium Quality Natural Mineral Sparkling.

This year one company from W.Va. did win one of the top awards: Lesage Natural Water from Cabell County, West Virginia won the fourth place award for a new category: best purified water. Their water is not taken directly from a spring, like Sweet Springs, but rather is taken from a well and is then put through a filtration system. Lesage is located along the Ohio River.

Ranking just after Lesage for 5th place for the best purified water was Mountain Drop, Linthicum, MD, which bottles water that is shipped from Berkeley Springs.

Another Appalachian winner this year was Halstead Spring Water in East Tennessee, which won third prize for the world’s best bottled water. In 2000, Halstead Spring won the gold medal at the competition. The company’s owner, John Beitz, says that their water business is booming, and they’re looking to expand and hire about one or two new full time employees in the next year. The spring water that they bottle comes directly from a spring, known to locals in Speedwell, TN as “cold spring.” Beitz says the water they sell lives up to that reputation.

Cecelia Mason of Shepherd University contributed to this story. She was one of the judges at this year’s Berkeley Springs Water Tasting and Competition.

WV TAP, Virginia Tech Studies Differ on Spilled Chemical Odor Analysis

A Virginia Tech study says a chemical that spilled into 300,000 West Virginians’ water supply in January stops smelling at a level 47 times stronger than other researchers found.

The group that discovered the lower chemical odor level questioned the Virginia Tech team’s methods.

The Virginia Tech group said in a news release that it detected the chemical in the air with specialized instruments. It used a gas law to calculate the corresponding odor threshold in water.

Michael McGuire of WV TAP, a state taxpayer-funded independent group, said in a news release that Virginia Tech focused on pure MCHM, instead of the “crude” version that spilled.

Both groups found the chemical’s licorice scent was present well below concentrations that federal officials deemed safe to consume in tap water.

Experts Say Lingering Odor Means Crude MCHM Remains in Water System

Researchers involved in a taxpayer-funded, independent water testing project in response to the January 9 spill by Freedom Industries began releasing findings earlier this week. The project, known as WV TAP, is currently attempting to determine the odor threshold for the chemical in question—crude MCHM. They are also investigating the safety factors applied by the CDC in determining how much chemical can be in water and still be called safe to drink.

Dr. Michael McGuire is conducting odor analysis panels to determine at what levels Crude MCHM can be smelled in the water. Results released Monday from an expert panel conducted by McGuire put that number at 0.15 parts per billion (ppb).

Researchers took time Tuesday to answer questions about the first round of studies that have been released.

To put that number in a bit of perspective, consider that testing conducted by the National Guard could detect levels down to 2 ppb, which indicates that the human nose has the ability to smell the chemical far better than analytical testing methods currently allow.

“It’s pretty clear, from some of the sampling and some of the anecdotal information, that all of the water that got into the distribution system doesn’t appear to have been flushed out of the system or out of peoples’ houses,” McGuire said.

“People are still smelling water that was associated with the original chemical spill and the aftermath.”

Dr. McGuire noted that while Crude MCHM isn’t any longer being introduced into West Virginia American Water’s intake, there’s little doubt the chemical lingers throughout the distribution system.

“People, as I’ve noted, can smell this compound at very, very low levels. So, if they have not flushed out their houses or their housing premise—plumbing systems—if there are any dead zones in the distribution containing this old water, people will still be able to smell it,” McGuire said.

“So that’s why, obviously, it’s essential that a flushing program be conducted and be conducted thoroughly,” he added.

While McGuire is handling odor analysis for Crude MCHM, WV TAP project manager Jeff Rosen of Corona Environmental Consulting has tapped Dr. Craig Adams of Utah State University’s Water Research Laboratory to conduct a literature review of toxicological studies on the chemical.

Asked whether current data would—or, should—allow for EPA regulation in regards to drinking water quality, Adams said the data available on the chemical is “much, much less” than what would be available for a compound for which the federal agency would make a regulatory determination.

“The reason for that, I believe, is because these compounds would not be expected to be commonly found in drinking water,”Adams said.

Based on Adams’ literature review, another expert panel will investigate whether the data available on the chemical was sufficient in the CDC’s determination that the water was “safe for use” at levels of Crude MCHM below 1 part per million (ppm).

He said exposure to the chemical in other ways, either by contact with skin or breathing, also needs to be considered.

“Dermal exposure and inhalation exposure are two potentially important routes for any contaminate—as well as ingestion through drinking water and, frankly, food and so on. So they are important routes to consider.”

As for the relationship between the black licorice odor of Crude MCHM and potential health effects for those exposed to the chemical, Dr. McGuire is careful not to link the two quite yet.

“There’s not a direct relationship between, of course, odor and toxicity. For some compounds you can smell it before it’s bad for you and for others it’s reversed,” McGuire said.

“In this case, we have an early warning system of the human nose to be able to detect when MCHM—the Crude MCHM—is present in the water.”

Researchers involved in the WV TAP project plan to convene in Charleston to release in-home testing results from 10 homes sampled across the region by Dr. Andrew Whelton of the University of South Alabama, a lead researcher on the project.

Expert Nose Has Ability to Detect MCHM 'Far Greater' Than Current Testing Methods

Researchers involved in the independent, taxpayer-funded testing project known as WV TAP say results from a single expert panel show that Crude MCHM can be detected by an expert human nose when analytical methods used in testing the water indicate non-detect levels.

The WV TAP program was established in response to lingering concerns over water quality and testing after the January 9 spill by Freedom Industries. The spill fouled the drinking water supply of 300,000 West Virginians for up to 10 days.

In a summary of the documents disclosed Monday afternoon, WV TAP researchers said the “ability of the expert human nose” to detect Crude MCHM is “far greater than any analytical method available today.” According to the summary, “the estimated OTC for the Expert Panel is in the realm of parts per trillion (ppt), a very low concentration.”

The National Guard and state officials tested the water at a threshold of 2 parts per billion (ppb). Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed the water “safe” for drinking at levels below 1 part per million (ppm).

Odor threshold values reported from the WV TAP study show:

Odor Threshold Concentration: 0.15 ppb [The actual OTC for the experts is likely less than 0.15 ppb]
Odor Recognition Concentration: 2.2 ppb [15 times greater than OTC]
Odor Objection Concentration based on degree of liking: 4.0 ppb [27 times greater than OTC]
Odor Objection Concentration (OOC) based on complaint: 4.0 ppb [27 times greater than OTC]

The summary states that estimated thresholds determined in the Expert Panel study “support consumer observations” that “people recognized and objected to the licorice odor caused by Crude MCHM in their drinking water even though the analytical reports were showing non-detect at a minimum reporting level of 10 ppb.”

On Monday, the WV TAP project also released a literature review of studies on health effects of MCHM.