They poisoned the river for a "clean coal" lie
Trish Kahle explains how a chemical used by the coal companies spilled into the Elk River, causing a crisis affecting hundreds of thousands--with no end in sight.
IMAGINE YOURSELF in the rugged countryside of the Appalachian Mountains, where you and your neighbors have lived with a history of poverty and lack of economic development--and you learn that the water piped into your home has been poisoned and can't be used, even after it is boiled, until further notice.
Imagine trying to run a hospital when the city's water is unusable--even for hand washing. Imagine having to ration drinking water to school-age children in the fourth most water-rich country on earth.
All of these nightmares and more came true in West Virginia on January 9 after residents reported that their tap water tasted like licorice. The contaminant turned out to be 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCMH--a chemical used to produce misleadingly named "clean coal" through a froth flotation process that "scrubs" the coal prior to burning it in power plants.
The chemical spilled into the Elk River from a 48,000-gallon tank owned by Freedom Industries. The full extent of the leak remained unclear over the weekend. West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin claimed the spill didn't exceed 5,000 gallons, but Freedom Industries President Gary Southern could only say for certain that less than 35,000 gallons leaked out.
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http://socialistworker.org/2014/01/13/they-poisoned-the-river
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Or is this another BP in the Gulf.
Then we will have the fracking disasters to deal with in communities in the coming years.
That chemical plant had no business being there in the first place.
