CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two years after thousands of gallons of a
coal-cleaning agent leaked into the drinking water supply of 300,000
West Virginians, the sentencings of six officials at a chemical
distributor this month will bring to a close criminal cases in the
spill.
For residents who never met those men, the saga won’t ever be forgotten.
It began when a licorice odor was noticed along the
Elk River in Charleston the morning of Jan. 9, 2014. The smell was
pinpointed to a leak of the coal-cleaning agent MCHM at a series of Freedom Industries tanks less than 2 miles upstream from West Virginia American Water’s intake.
By nightfall, state officials declared a state of
emergency, telling residents in a nine-county area to avoid using their
tap water except for flushing toilets and putting out fires.
Residents immediately cleared store shelves of
bottled water, and suppliers sent in truckloads of water. Many
restaurants were forced to close or cut back services temporarily.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two years after thousands of gallons
of a coal-cleaning agent leaked into the drinking water supply of
300,000 West Virginians, the sentencings of six officials at a chemical
distributor this month will bring to a close criminal cases in the
spill.
For residents who never met those men, the saga won’t ever be forgotten.
It began when a licorice odor was noticed along the
Elk River in Charleston the morning of Jan. 9, 2014. The smell was
pinpointed to a leak of the coal-cleaning agent MCHM at a series of Freedom Industries tanks less than 2 miles upstream from West Virginia American Water’s intake.
By nightfall, state officials declared a state of
emergency, telling residents in a nine-county area to avoid using their
tap water except for flushing toilets and putting out fires.
Residents immediately cleared store shelves of
bottled water, and suppliers sent in truckloads of water. Many
restaurants were forced to close or cut back services temporarily.
The tap water advisory remained in place for up to 10
days while homes and businesses systematically flushed the chemical
from their lines.
Before the advisory was lifted, Freedom filed for bankruptcy.
The first to be sentenced for negligent discharge of a pollutant this week are Freedom plant manager Michael Burdette on Monday and environmental consultant Robert Reynolds
on Wednesday. Each faces up to a year in prison and a minimum $2,500
fine. The company faces up to $900,000 in fines at a hearing Thursday.
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