Jeff McIntyre Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Plan for Backup Water Supply Underway in Huntington

West Virginia American Water says it has initiated a contingency plan for a temporary backup water supply to its Huntington water treatment plant in response to increasing algae blooms on the Ohio River.

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission notified the utility last week that algae blooms had been detected on the river upstream of Huntington.

The water company says in a news release the plan includes connecting large, temporary raw water lines from the Guyandotte River into the company’s raw water line.

The company says it will continue to monitor water quality upstream and at the Huntington treatment plant.

Company President Jeff McIntyre says the backup source may not be needed, but precautions are being taken for customers’ protection in the event that the algae blooms worsen.

WVAW Changing Carbon Filters at Charleston Plant

West Virginia American Water is beginning the long process of changing water filters that were in place during the Jan. 9 chemical spill that contaminated drinking water for more than 300,000 people.

Water company spokeswoman Laura Jordan says the process begins Monday and may take eight weeks or longer. She says only two of the water plant’s 16 filters can be changed each week while maintaining service.

Residents have expressed concern that these filters have not already been changed. Some have demanded they be changed in letters to the company.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWECeINFYQ

In February, water company president Jeff McIntyre told the Legislature changing the filters would be both costly and unnecessary.

At that time, lawmakers told him changing the filters would go a long way to boost the public’s trust.

West Virginia American Water Lifts Ban Zone-by-Zone

West Virginia American Water began the long-awaited flushing process yesterday afternoon for residents who have been without water since Thursday.

Residents in the nine counties began the flushing process using an interactive online map. The chemical leak has left residents without the use of water since Thursday. Residents have been instructed to follow a detailed process once their area is in the blue zone on a map at amwater.com. Jeff McIntyre is President of West Virginia American Water. He said it’s a three-step process.

Turn on all your hot water taps and flush for 15 minutes and shut those taps back off.
Turn on your cold water taps and flush for five minutes and then turn those off.
Go outside and then go to your outside taps, any fixtures you have outside and flush for five minutes.

The press conference was held Monday afternoon at the capitol where McIntyre and others outlined the next step. McIntyre said residents need to follow the precise instructions located on the website for additional outlets that the public may have such as appliances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6w6HVVbTOI

“There’s the flushing and then it’s your appliances and fixtures, so if you have a dishwater and an icemaker there are additional steps that you may have in your house, but once you finish our protocol that’s laid out on several pages, once you’re done you’re done,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre did not offer a time table for how long it would take to get all zones through the flushing process. The first zone yesterday afternoon focused on the downtown Charleston area and included local hospitals in the region.

With the focus turning to how to prevent any future instances of chemical leaks into the water supply, Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Randy Huffman says they’re already working on legislation to help prevent accidents like this in future.

“We’re also at the governor’s request developing some proposals for how we might more properly regulate these facilities in order to minimize the risk of a spill,” Huffman said.

Huffman said they are looking into ways to more closely pay attention to sites that are storage-only such as the Freedom Industries site where the leak occurred. Sites such as Freedom’s are not regulated like facilities that house the production of the chemical at issue.

McIntyre said from the perspective of West Virginia American Water it’s not time to look at risk assessment until they have got the water once again available to all its customers.

“We’re not doing anything of that work at this time, there is no risk assessment going on at this time, our focus is singular to getting the customers back into water as early as possible,” McIntyre said.

Major General James Hoyer of the West Virginia National Guard said it may have taken a few days, but the group has been doing its best to deliver accurate information to people in the region.

“Every member of the inter-agency team that’s doing the testing and analysis and working this process has family members and loved ones that live in this area, so one of the over-arching things in addition to the science of what our folks are doing is the fact that we owe a responsibility to the citizens of the state and our families to provide the best information we have,” Hoyer said.

Members of the public seeking information on flushing process, should visit West Virginia American Waters site.

West Virginia American Water: 'Zones' Become 'Areas', More Cleared

Updated: January 14, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.

From West Virginia American Water’s Facebook page:

As West Virginia American Water proceeds with the lifting of Do Not Use, we will refer to the localities being lifted as "areas." Yesterday, we used the term "zones" to describe the four primary locations close to the Kanawha Valley treatment plant where we were able to lift the ban and ensure that the transition did not disrupt our production and distribution system. The areas where we are lifting the Do Not Use orders are based on pressure zones, and the order of the lift announcements are determined by where acceptable test results obtained from samples have been confirmed. If you have any questions when a new Do Not Use lift is issued, please refer to the map listed under “Do Not Use Water” section of our website at www.westvirginiaamwater.com.

Updated: January 13, 2014 at 9:52 p.m.

Zone Four in North Charleston has been cleared for the flushing process to begin as of 9 p.m. If you have questions about whether your home or business has been approved for the flush process, see West Virginia American Water’s interactive map:

http://www.amwater.com/about-us/news.html

Also, the water company announced the fourth zone will end Monday’s flushing process for the day. More zones will be approved for flushing Tuesday.

From West Virginia American Water’s Facebook page:

"After lifting the "do not use" order for 26,000 customers today, the system needs time to settle so our operators can measure how it is reacting to the flushing activity. Therefore, we will not lift any additional zones tonight. We will provide updates on the next lift zone early Tuesday morning. Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation."

Updated: January 13, 2014 at 7:14 p.m.

Zone 3, containing most of South Charleston, has now been cleared to start flushing systems within their homes and cleaning appliances. Make sure you are checking the West Virginia American Water interactive map to make sure your zone’s advisory has been lifted before beginning the flushing process. The map can be found at the link below.

http://www.amwater.com/about-us/news.html

Updated: January 13, 2014 at 5:49 p.m.

Through a news release, Facebook, and Twitter, West Virginia American Water has announced the ban on the second zone has been lifted, which includes nearly all of the Kanawha City area.

Customers of the water company are urged not to begin the flushing process until their zone is approved. To find out if your zone is ready for the flushing process, refer to West Virgina American Water’s interactive map on their website here:

http://www.amwater.com/about-us/news.html

Original Story Posted January 13, 2014 at 1:52 p.m.

A ban on tap water has been lifted in part of West Virginia that was hit by a chemical that spilled into a river and tainted the water supply.

     Gov. Earl Tomblin made the announcement at a news conference Monday, five days after about 300,000 people were told not to drink, wash or use the water in any way other than to flush their toilets.

     Officials are lifting the ban in a strict, methodical manner to help ensure the water system is not overwhelmed by excessive demand, which could cause more water quality and service issues.

     The water crisis started Thursday when the chemical used in coal processing leaked from a Freedom Industries plant into the nearby Elk River.

     It’s still not clear exactly what caused a tank to start leaking the chemical.

West Virginia American Water has set up a website for customers to find out if their zone has been approved. Customers have also been told they can call a toll free number if they need assistance in identifying which zone they reside. That

The water company has also provided highly detailed step-by-step instructions for customers to refer to once their zone has been cleared for the flushing process.

End of Outage May Be in Sight for Water Customers, Businesses

John Kaiser of Dunbar has been without water since Thursday. No dishes, no laundry, no shower just like 300,000 other West Virginians.

But Sunday, you could say, was a better day for Kaiser. Sunday one of his three Kanawha County restaurants—a Steak Escape connected to a gas station on Corridor G—was allowed to reopen.

“You had to submit a plan to the health department of how you would meet their standards,” he said. “We did that and they came out (Saturday) night, did a walk through, did an inspection and they approved us.”

Kaiser said his restaurant brings in about three to four thousand dollars on the typical Saturday, but this week he lost that revenue. And he’s not alone.

Hundreds of businesses in nine counties have had to close up shop since a chemical leak contaminated the drinking water supply Thursday and spread through the entire West Virginia American Water System.

“The numbers overnight have trended the way we expected them to,” said Col. Greg Grant as he updated the media Sunday afternoon.

He heads a team of National Guard chemist who, with the help of 16 teams, have collected hundreds of samples throughout the distribution system.

Samples tested at 10 labs in West Virginia plus one in Ohio and another in Pittsburgh show less and less of the chemical is present in the water, getting customers one step closer to life as usual.

West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre said the green light has not been given to begin flushing the system, but when it begins, crews will flush it out in zones.

Zones that include hospitals and the highest population densities are the top priorities to get back online, but McIntyre said it will still be a difficult process for customers to understand.

“They’re done by pressure zones so they will overlap zip codes, they will overlap county lines, they will overlap city lines because they’re based on our system pressure zones,” he explained.

So, McIntyre and his team have set up a website where customers can simply type in their address and a virtual map will show you if you’re in a zone that’s been given the all clear.

A hotline to check on your clearance will also be set up and automatic calls will be made by the company when your home is in the green, but the phone number and web address are not being released until the first zone is ready to begin flushing.

Governor Tomblin warned customers to heed the directions of water officials and not start their own part of the flushing process early.

“This is still a state of emergency. Please don’t jump ahead,” he said Sunday. “That green light has not been given yet.”

Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling said detailed protocols on how to deal with cleaning will be dispersed when flushing starts as well. Those protocols will include dealing with pipes, hot water tanks, appliances, anything that has come in contact with the contaminated water.

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said there has been no reported impact to neither animal nor aquatic life since the leak. No fish kill has been reported, which he said was a concern.

Freedom Industries is reportedly working closely with DEP teams to clean up the site as quickly as possible.

DEP Emergency Response Director Mike Dorsey said they’ve dug trenches to collect chemical leaching in the groundwater and have set up booms on the riverbank to prevent any additional chemical from getting into the Elk River.

Tomblin added, however, he thinks the company should have offered more assistance in the water recovery effort.

“As we found out, most people did not know a whole lot about this particular chemical,” he said. “As you saw, we had to do a lot of research internally very quickly to find out what effects it may have.”

“I think perhaps they could have been a little more forthcoming and offer their assistance on what problems this particular chemical could have caused.”

Tomblin said regulations will be a top priority as the legislative session continues. He plans to work with DEP Secretary Huffman to figure out how to regulate such storage facilities.

Testing Results Show Downward Trend in Water Contamination

It’s been nearly three days since a “do not use” water advisory was issued for more than 300,000 people in the Kanawha Valley, but now officials are saying the end may be in sight.

It took a team of chemists from the National Guard a full day to produce a method testing the amount of crude MCHM in the water at the contaminated treatment facility. The chemical is used in a coal washing process and leaked into the water supply Thursday morning from a storage tank along the Elk River.

Col. Greg Grant said the amount of chemical present is trending downward with each test, but must be consistently below 1 part per million for a 24 hour period before West Virginia American Water can begin to flush their piping system.

“What we’re looking at is a broad spectrum of data that gives us a composite look at this water over a period of time to make sure it’s safe,” he said at a press conference Saturday night, “and those data points are showing that we are moving in the right direction.”

Grant said his teams would collect more than 100 samples overnight from the treatment plant and throughout the system to increase the data set and give them more accurate information.

“These individual samples are like a puzzle piece. We have a bunch of puzzle pieces, but we don’t have the picture yet,” added West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre.

An outside contractor has been hired to help expedite the testing process of these samples, a process they’ve narrowed down from 46 to 18 minutes.

McIntyre said it will still likely take days to flush the system even if they have the proper data set Sunday, but customers should not start flushing their own plumbing now.

McIntyre warned running your water will deplete the amount they are able to test and compromise the recovery efforts. Customers will be given detailed directions on how to handle the process at the appropriate time.