The West Virginia Public Service Commission has scheduled a formal evidentiary hearing as part of its investigation of a chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water of 300,000 people.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24-26 at the commission’s headquarters in Charleston. The commission also scheduled two hearings to take public comment on Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The hearings are part of a general investigation of how West Virginia American Water Co. handled a water crisis stemming from a 2014 chemical spill at Freedom Industries.
Specifically, commissioners want to know if the company’s actions constituted “unreasonable or inadequate practices, acts or services” as defined by state law.
The commission could order the company to fix any problems it finds.
A federal judge has tentatively approved a $151 million settlement involving two companies sued over a 2014 chemical spill that contaminated drinking…
A federal judge has tentatively approved a $151 million settlement involving two companies sued over a 2014 chemical spill that contaminated drinking water in southern West Virginia.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver approved the proposed deal Monday afternoon after more than two hours of closed-door negotiations on the wording of the agreement.
Stuart Calwell, an attorney representing the class-action residents and businesses, says that under the settlement, West Virginia American Water Co. will pay $126 million and chemical maker Eastman Chemical will pay $25 million.
The money will be distributed to affected residents and businesses through an application process to be determined later.
In January 2014, a tank at Freedom Industries in Charleston leaked chemicals into the drinking water supply for 300,000 people, prompting a tap-water ban for days.
A proposed settlement has been reached between Charleston residents and a chemical company accused of not doing enough to safeguard West Virginia’s capital city from a spill that polluted the drinking water of 300,000 people in 2014.
According to court officials, attorneys for Eastman Chemical and Charleston-area residents and businesses proposed the settlement. Eastman is producer of a coal-cleaning agent that spilled.
It is subject to approval by U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver. Its terms are sealed.
The trial for claims against West Virginia American Water is scheduled to start Thursday.
The chemical leaked from a storage tank of since-bankrupted Freedom Industries into the Elk River in January 2014, preventing the capital and nearby areas from using tap water for days.
Jury selection begins Tuesday in Charleston in the class-action lawsuit against a chemical company and a water utility.
The trial over a 2014 chemical spill that resulted in the contamination of more than 300,000 people’s drinking water is set to begin this week.
Tuesday, attorneys on both sides will appear before Judge John Copenhaver in U.S. Federal District Court to begin selecting the 12 person jury.
Hundreds of area businesses impacted by the chemical spill into the Elk River are suing Eastman Chemical and West Virginia American Water over the incident.
Eastman produces the coal cleaning chemical MCHM which was leaked into the water supply resulting in a do not use order. West Virginia American Water is the water utility that provides service to the impacted 9 county area.
The businesses allege the utility did not properly prepare to respond to the Jan. 9, 2014, incident and that Eastman did not properly warn Freedom Industries, the company storing MCHM mixed with other chemicals about a mile upstream of the public drinking water intake, about the chemical’s safety concerns.
Lawyers on both sides are reportedly still negotiating a settlement.
A judge has ruled against local workers who sued a water company to recoup wages lost during a January 2014 chemical spill.The Charleston Gazette-Mail…
A judge has ruled against local workers who sued a water company to recoup wages lost during a January 2014 chemical spill.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver in Charleston granted West Virginia American Water’s motion to dismiss those claims. The judge denied a similar motion by Eastman Chemical, the producer of the spilled chemical.
It was one of several rulings issued in the class-action lawsuit against the water company and Eastman by residents, businesses and workers who were ordered not to use contaminated water. A trial begins Oct. 25.
The lawsuit alleges the water company was unprepared for the Freedom Industries spill that spurred a do-not-use order on tap water for 300,000 people for days.
It claims Eastman didn’t advise Freedom of the chemical’s dangers.
The Chemical Safety Board voted Wednesday evening to approve the final report and recommendations that were the result of a more than two and a half year investigation into a Charleston chemical leak.
The leak, which was discovered January 9, 2014, spurred a tap water ban for more than 300, 000 West Virginians for as many as ten days.
It originated in a 46,000 gallon tank on the banks of the Elk River. Owned by Freedom Industries, a since bankrupted and dissolved company, the tank contained a coal cleaning chemical called MCHM. That chemical traveled downstream about a mile and a half to West Virginia American Water’s water treatment plant intake.
The Report’s Findings
Credit @chemsafetyboard / Twitter
/
Twitter
The two holes discovered at the base of a 46,000 gallon storage tank that leaked MCHM into Charleston’s drinking water supply.
Chemical Safety Board Chair Vanessa Allen Sutherland and lead investigator Johnnie Banks shared the report during a press conference Wednesday, stressing two major findings.
The first of those, Banks said, was that the investigation found no evidence that the tanks located on the Freedom Industries site had been inspected in the ten years prior to the incident.
During Wednesday evening’s meeting, another investigator told CSB members the lack of evidence stretched back even further and that the tanks likely hadn’t been inspected in 30-40 years.
Sutherland added the second major findings was that the utility had no idea the chemical was located near its intake and had no plans in place to deal with a potential contamination.
“What happened here in Charleston was preventable,” Sutherland said, and requiring the inspection of storage tanks and proper response plans could have prevented the incident from ever occurring, or at least mitigated public harm, she added.
CSB Recommendations
The final report includes recommendations for both the utility and the manufacturer of the chemical. They include:
Communicate findings and lessons learned with all American Water subsidiaries
Conduct an inventory of hazardous chemicals near water treatment plants
Create response plans should a contamination of one of those chemicals occur
Update the MCHM safety data sheet with more complete information on its health impacts
The CSB, however, does not have the authority to force either Eastman Chemical, the manufacturer, or American Water Works, the parent company of West Virginia American Water to implement any of its recommendations. That would take legislative action.
Credit Dave Mistich / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The tanks at the Freedom Industries’ site were demolished in 2014 following several state and federal investigations.
CSB investigators also shared a list of lessons that can be learned from the 2014 incident, including the importance of a mandatory aboveground storage tank inspection program and the creation of source water protection plans– both of which were a part of a comprehensive storage tank bill approved shortly after the Charleston spill.
Although lawmakers have since revisited that legislation and rolled back some of its provisions, a CSB investigator said Wednesday evening he still believed the bill would be effective.
The Unanswered Questions
Members of the public were invited to speak directly to the Chemical Safety Baord Wednesday evening before the final vote on the recommendations and many expressed concerns over the answer they did not receive from the investigation.
“How long was it leaking? How long were we drinking it in our drinking water, not knowing it?” Gary Zuckett, head of the West Virginia Citizens Action Group asked, but investigator Johnnie Banks told reporters earlier in the day they could not conclude when they leak actually began.
Kanawha Valley resident Phil Price, who told board members he has a Ph.D. in chemistry and has worked on chemical spill investigations in the past, pointed out that the report also does not include conclusive evidence about how much MCHM leaked into the water supply. Instead, they rely on Freedom Industries’ estimates.
Although the report was approved Wednesday evening, Sutherland said the investigators will be asked to look into some of the publics concerns and include them in an addendum to the final report.
