A WV resident tweeted a picture her water. NASTY!

[Are_grits_groceries]

@cgoodwoman:
I live in Charleston, WV. We have been w/out WATER for 6 days. The ban has lifted -- but would YOU drink this?


Drink that? Not in this lifetime.

[SidDithers]

1. Rust from not flowing for 6 days, maybe?...

I certainly wouldn't drink the water like that. Does it start to flow clear after running it for a while?

Sid

[Botany]

16. +1

n/t

[onehandle]

2. Mistake. Fox News will use this image as more proof that the 99% are 'just fine.'

Megyn Kelly: 'See. They have bathtubs and water. I have those in my penthouse apartment. Stop complaining, you takers.'

[JackintheGreen]

3. That looks like my water!

But I live in Pakistan, and I don't drink the tap water.

[marions ghost]

4. Uggggghhh

and then where do the sewage systems empty out?

[rurallib]

5. I would hope the president of the company that spilled the chemicals would

just to show how safe it was. Maybe he should have 3 or 4 glasses.
Then maybe the governor should have 3 or 4. They both claim the water is safe.

[dickthegrouch]

18. Didn't his girlfriend volunteer for just that?

She tweeted that she'd drunk some (possibly) once and she was just fine.
Invite her over for a bath in it.

[Duckhunter935]

6. I have seen this

when the main lines have been flushed and stirred up sediments and rust in the lines. Goes back to normal very soon.

[kag]

11. I have too, but...

it was from a well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been assuming that the problems in WV are with a municipal water system. And besides, even when it happened to our well, I wouldn't drink it until it ran clear. It was gross!

[liberal N proud]

7. It would be a long time before I would drink water from the tap

Must remember when traveling through West Virginia, DON'T DRINK THE WATER.

[marions ghost]

9. Or any water that smells like licorice...

--------

[Brickbat]

8. How long has the water been running?

It takes a while for things to clear out after a flush.

[watoos]

10. Don't buy any licorice flavored moonshine.

[kag]

12. Don't you call that Ouzo??

[FarCenter]

13. Or any absinthe - which is also green

Unlike the spilled chemical, which is colorless.

[B2G]

14. That is rust and sediment

It's not indicative of the presence of chemicals.

[behrstar]

22. How do you know this??

A standard bathtub holds approx 30 gallons of water. How long would you run YOUR water after it runs "clear" before you decided it was safe?

How have you determined that the discoloration is due to rust and sediment instead of chemicals? Are all harmful chemicals dissolved in water clear and therefore the discolored water indicates that no dangerous chemicals (which is totally inconclusive because the "sediment and rust" could conceal the "clear" chemicals). Sorry if I sound snotty, but your conclusion is false, and I don't need to be a scientist to figure that out.

[B2G]

25. The chemical in question here has no color

If it were me, I'd run the water until it was clear and then have an independent chemical analysis done.

[snooper2]

15. I keep reading these titles like "volkswagen resident"

[pipi_k]

17. Drink it?

Hell no...I wouldn't even bathe in that crap, even if it's not still polluted with chemicals and the appearance is only due to rust and sediment.

I saw yesterday where in one section of the affected area the residents were being told that the water was now safe to use.

Piss on that! I wouldn't drink it until the people saying it's safe came out to drink it first.

[jsr]

19. Picky, picky. It's fine for showering and brushing your teeth.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. That's rusty pipes. It always happens when the water sits in the pipes....

.... and/or the hot water heater. I'm not real familiar with wells but I assume the pipes in the well get rusty as well.

I suspect a lot of plumbers will be making easy money cleaning out sink faucet aerators.

Every time we shut water down to our building I send out an email reminding people to clean their sink aerators. Inevitably, I get a call from someone "what did you do to the plumbing my kitchen faucet doesn't work do I need to call a plumber?"

[X_Digger]

21. I bet a lot of folks didn't think to remove the aerator before flushing, too.

Well water in that area is usually rusty as hell, but not because of pipes, it's in the aquifer.

Folks with wells in that area typically use sand filters to take care of it. Every so often, you have to scrape off the orange sludge encrusted sand and replace with fresh sand.

All over the countryside you'll see these tiny little pump houses with orange streaks on the concrete from iron.

[behrstar]

23. That tub holds approx 30 gallons of water

That's is a hell of a lot of "rust". Why do you conclude that the discoloration is rust and not dangerous chemicals?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. A) Because I've seen it a hundred times.

B) Because that thirty gallons is not all rust. It doesn't take much to tint the waster.

C) I'm under the impression the chemical is not rust colored. I could be wrong. Even if it's not rust colored I doubt the dilution in millions of gallons is enough to tint the water that much.

[behrstar]

24. Photoshopped

How come n one of you "it's just rust" people haven't accused the tweeter of altering the coloration in her pic.

WOULD YOU DRINK AND BATHE IN THAT???

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. We have ground water here in Houston. If the tub isn't used in awhile (it's a separate

tub and shower), the water runs yellow and tints the entire bath. It looks very much like the picture tweeted out. We try to remember to let the water run a bit before filling the tub. No one in Houston drinks tap water if they can help it. It tastes awful.

[happyslug]

26. West Virginia water that is NOT orange??? I am confused....

http://www.peterscreek.org/



http://www.water-research.net/wilkesbarrewaterbmp.htm

Now the above are Pennsylvania locations, but West Virginia tends to have the same color of water.

http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/acid_mine_drainage#.Uta049JdXi4

One good thing about Acid Mine Runoff, is it reduced radioactively found in Fracking:

http://dailyfusion.net/2014/01/acid-mine-drainage-can-remove-radioactivity-from-fracking-wastewater-25972/

Such accidents are NOT uncommon in West Virginia:

http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/west-virginia-chemical-spill-calamity-not-rarity-mining-towns-priest-says

[Aerows]

28. Koch brothers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Elk_River_chemical_spill

Freedom Industries was founded in 1992 by Gary Southern, and Carl L. Kennedy II.[1][2] On December 31, 2013, Freedom Industries merged with three other companies, Etowah River Terminal, Poca Blending, and Crete Technologies.[1][2] Southern remains as president of the newly formed company.[1] The company distributes chemicals used in coal mining[1] and is a distributor for Georgia-Pacific.[3] Georgia-Pacific is in turn owned by Koch Industries.[4]

Is anyone surprised this has their fingerprints all over it?

[tblue]

30. Worse than Al Qaeda.

Far more dangerous and damaging to human welfare. Why are they running this country?

[tblue]

29. I'd tell the CEO of Freedom to drink it first

And the govt officials saying it's okay. Let them drink it in front of everybody.

Then I'd still wait a few weeks, see if they were still standing, before I drank that stuff, even if it looked clear and didn't smell. I don't trust that company or the politicians. I'll drink it after they drink it.

[Rex]

32. Make sure all the idiot libertarians you know get a link to this article!

THIS IS THE KIND OF WORLD idiot libertarians are working hard to make a reality!

[Coyotl]

33. I, for one, believes everything I sees with my own eyes

NOT

[cthulu2016]

34. Whatever... if this person wants to believe that is from industrial chemicals

then they will believe that.

But it isn't.

[Warpy]

35. Not without distilling it.

That is truly vile. It looks like they lined up a Boy Scout camp to pee in there.

It's supposed to smell a little better, though, a little like licorice.

But no, I wouldn't drink that in a million years. I'd also be loath to shower in it. There is no way you'd cajole me into that bathtub, either.