Charleston, WV, Water Crisis: 300,000 Without Safe Water After Chemical Spill
A major chemical spill in Charleston, WV, left 300,000 people without safe water for days. The incident, involving 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM), was declared a federal disaster. However, lack of information and inadequate data made it difficult to confirm the safety of the water and assess potential harm to humans.
The spill occurred on January 9, 2014, at a storage facility that was not regularly inspected due to MCHM not being classified as acutely toxic. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP), and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did not monitor the site.
Information on MCHM was scarce, with only animal toxicity tests conducted. This limited data led to uncertainty about its potential harm to humans. Federal databases like TOXNET and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry were not helpful due to inadequate underlying data. The president of the local water treatment plant could not confirm the safety of the water days after the spill due to this lack of information.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) attempted to improve systematic testing of chemical substances under the Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 1009). This targeted substances already on the market under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act that had not been systematically assessed. S. 1009 aims to require systematic evaluations of grandfathered chemicals to ensure sufficient information is available in future disasters.
The MCHM spill in Charleston, WV, highlighted the need for better regulation and data availability regarding chemical substances. West Virginia and other states should mandate e-filing for chemical plant reports, make the data freely available online, and offer bulk downloads in machine-readable formats. This would improve access to information on the locations of plants storing hazardous chemicals and their potential impacts on public health and the environment.
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