water Story Archives - Page 18 of 19 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

So, How Did The CDC Come Up With MCHM Being 'Safe' Under 1 PPM, Anyway?

It’s now been a week since the chemical spill at Freedom Industries in Charleston leaked roughly 7,500 gallons of crude MCHM into the Elk River and tainted the water supply of some 300,000 residents of the Kanawha Valley and surrounding areas. Many residents remain suspicious of the water quality after the State Bureau for Public Health–in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention–advised pregnant women Wednesday night not to drink water until the chemical is untraceable in West Virginia American Water’s system.

The CDC had been quiet about the impact on MCHM in West Virginia’s water supply until Wednesday’s warning to expecting mothers and hadn’t spoken to media since the spill. However, the agency finally broke its silence on the matter Thursday morning, speaking to Ken Ward and David Gutman of The Charleston Gazette, saying that it’s “almost as if we’re learning as we go” regarding the potential effects of the spilled chemical.

The CDC also fielded questions from local and national media on a conference call Thursday afternoon.

“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 Thursday’s conference call.

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

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.

WVAW President: Days Before Water is Returned

Businesses in Charleston may soon be allowed to reopen, but West Virginia American Water customers will still have to wait- maybe as long as days- before the “do not use” advisory is lifted.

Kanawha Charleston Health Department Director Dr. Rahl Gutpa said the county health department will begin reviewing plans from businesses that can show they can safely reopen their doors.

He said they will have to find an alternative source of water to be approved and will go through onsite reviews for safety.

Adjutant General James Hoyer says the National Guard and a team of experts have created a standard methodology for testing water samples.

Friday, Hoyer said water samples were testing at 1.7 parts per million. The Centers for Disease Control says the water is safe for use and consumption at 1 part per million, but West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre said they are not releasing Saturday’s testing sample results- at least not yet.

“We can collect all the samples we want, but the equipment that we run it through is very sophisticated and it takes time to run those samples,” McIntyre said. “So, we have a lot of samples that we’ve collected that we’ve not even had time to run.”

Each sample takes 20 minutes to test.

McIntyre said once his company can assure the water processed in the treatment plant is at the CDC approved level then they can begin flushing their water lines. Giving customers the closest thing to a timeline they’ve received yet, McIntyre said the flushing process will likely take days.

As far as the leak site itself, Mike Dorsey with the state Department of Environmental Protection said approximately 7,500 gallons of Crude MCHM leaked from a one inch hole in a storage tank, but they’re still not sure how the hole got there.

The DEP has set up booms in the river to collect any water that may still be leaching from the shoreline and have dug multiple interceptor trenches to collect any contaminated groundwater.

West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre told members of the media it may take days to flush the entire water distribution system before people can resume using their water.

Dorsey said Freedom Industries- the company responsible for the contamination-is now cooperating fully.

“There’s a great deal more cooperation now than there was early on,” he said. “It’s a serious issue and it’s in everyone’s best interest to communicate well.”

There was a concern about the chemical continuing to move downriver, impacting the drinking water of more than just West Virginia American Water customers, but Dorsey said by the time the chemical reaches the Kanawha River and then eventually the Ohio River, he believes it will be too diluted to impact public health.

National Park Service Determines Ajax Spring Unsafe for Consumption, Closes Area

The National Park Service will be closing the Ajax Spring located off of Fayette Station Road after recent mandatory testing indicated the water does not meet the minimum requirements for drinking water. Despite the fact that the spring is posted as a non-potable water source, there are concerns that residents in the local community use the spring water for household use.

“Because we are aware the public uses the spring we were required to test it during a recent mandatory audit. When the test results were reviewed by the National Park Service Public Health Inspector, he recommended closing the spring” said Superintendent Trish Kicklighter.

The lab results showed high levels of arsenic and mercury and the presence of coliform bacteria. Turbidity is also a major issue of concern. The water turbidity and presence of coliform indicate surface water is leaking through rock fissures and cracks contaminating the spring.

The water source for the Ajax Spring comes from drainage out of the old Ajax mine. The concrete structure and pipe to access the spring existed prior to the park’s establishment. After this site became a part of the New River Gorge National River in 1988, park staff maintained access to the spring for the local community.

“We know local residents use the spring to supply their households with drinking water; however, with the recent test results we cannot in good conscience keep the spring operational”, said Superintendent Kicklighter.

A Fayette County sanitarian stated that the water system does not meet the minimum standards of the WV 64 CSR 3, Public Water Systems.

Study: Fracking requires more water than we thought

The Marcellus water resources and water footprint report takes a critical look at water-use data provided by natural gas drillers over the past couple years to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection—data operators are required to provide under the Horizontal Well Control Act of 2011.

The study interprets that data as well as compares it to the data reported in Pennsylvania, where the gas industry is substantially more developed. The president of Morgantown-based environmental firm Downstream Strategies, Evan Hansen, began his explanation by showing an image of what once was a pit where waste fluid from a fractured hydraulic well used to be stored.

“This is a waste pit that’s located in West Virginia and you’ll notice that there’s no waste in it,” Hansen explained. “And that’s because it was recently pumped dry. And that plastic liner is being removed. The reason is that in this case the flowback fluid that was stored there was draining through cracks in the liner directly into the bedrock that underlies this pit and contaminating the drinking water aquifer.”

Hansen went on to explain that ground water monitoring data was collected before, during, and after development of the site. That data confirms pollution levels increased in the drinking water. He says it’s a cautionary tale that underscores the importance of diligent attention to water issues related to oil and gas development.

Wet Footprint

Hansen says there are about 2000 well sites in West Virginia and 9000 in Pennsylvania. He says the average Marcellus well in West Virginia injects about 5 million gallons of water into wells as fracking fluid. One of the key findings in the report is that “the amount of water used per well is higher than previously estimated for Marcellus Shale wells.”

“And by far most of the water comes from surface water—it’s about 81 percent—plus a portion of purchased water. That’s water purchased from local water utilities,” Hansen said.

Hansen found that 8 percent of the 5 million gallons that goes into each well comes back up.

Flowback

Hansen says the DEP and industry should be applauded for adopting new recycling practices so about 75% of that flowback is now being reused. He says the remainder is disposed of in deep well injections.

“That’s important because every gallon of water that comes from reuse rather than withdrawal is protective of the environment,” Hansen said.

He added that tracking this waste water should continue to be a priority. West Virginia already sees 100-million gallons of waste water each year and PA, across the border where the industry is significantly more developed, sees nearly a billion gallons of waste each year.

Wet Footprint

Hansen’s report also indicates a need to improve data collection and reporting requirements.

Hansen says one of his biggest concerns is that West Virginia’s state law only requires operators to report flowback water. It’s a different story in Pennsylvania where flowback only accounts for 38% of reported waste.

“In Pennsylvania, all types of waste are reported,” Hansen said. “And not only are all types of waste reported, they are reported every six months. So there’s a good, full accounting of the waste generated from Marcellus operations in Pennsylvania. It’s different in West Virginia.”

Operators in West Virginia are required to submit data once a year, but according to the study, only about a third comply. Moreover, errors in data submissions are common.

“Roughly one third of the data we found to be suspect and so we decided to eliminate it before we crunched our numbers because we wanted to be sure that the data that we used for our analysis was reliable.”