West Virginia Water

Thanks to everyone who was worried about me in the West Virginia Water Crisis.  I am North of the spill, so my water is not affected...by this.

I was without water for four days due to frozen pipes.  By the end of it I was ready to KILL anyone who crossed my path.  We were never in any danger, mind you.  There was enough bottled water for cats, chickens and even me.  There was water for coffee and cooking.  After several days, though, there were no more clean dishes.  At that point, cooking is not an option.  The kitchen is beginning to get a bit odoriferous.  And my hair, lets not even go there.  Needless to say, I was ready to KILL. 

I did not have a baby in the house, nor and elderly person, nor anyone with the flu, and on and on so one can only imagine how 100,000 West Virginian's feel at day 4.


Here are some of the highlights of the water contamination:

First, lets just ask ourselves, who zones a chemical waste storage facility one mile ABOVE the water treatment plant? 

Naming your company, "Freedom" and slapping a red, white and blue logo on it does not make it "freedom."  Nor free, nor patriotic as you dump gallons of unidentified chemicals into the drinking water.

An associate of "Freedom Industries"  was dismayed that West Virginia reacted so harshly, this time.  This time??

When asked how long this emergency might last the Governor said he didn't think it would be weeks.  WEEKS??  Seriously, WEEKS.  So a week or two is OK but probably not WEEKS.

When asked WHAT chemicals were leaking, officials said chemicals that smelled like liquorice.  But the exact chemicals are proprietary.  This bodes well for fracking, as their chemicals are also proprietary. 

When asked if the leak was underground, officials said no, there was a hole in the side of the tank.  A hole no one noticed until you could smell the chemicals in your car as you were driving up to the water treatment facility a mile away...

Freedom Industries said "We have mitigated the risk, we believe."   We believe in Santa.  "Mitigated", does that mean they duct taped the hole?

C.W. Sigman, an emergency manager for one of the counties involved, said the tank appeared to be "antique."  He said  it didn't appear the company was in emergency mode when his team began to arrive Thursday. "They didn't appear to understand the magnitude of the incident at the time, and we didn't either because we just got there," he said, adding that investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency had also arrived and took the lead in the investigation. "It took a little bit of time to get a determination how serious it was," he continued. "I never got a good indication from the plant folks how bad the leak was, how much was going to the river, anything else. It was probably a little ways into the incident before we realized how bad it was getting into the river."

 But, hey, lets give these companies TAX breaks.  Let's invite gas companies to drill and pump chemicals into the ground, and give them TAX breaks.  Let's disband the Environment Protection Agency! But whatever you do, don't extend unemployment benefits, or give someone an extra $32 in Food Stamps!  But I digress...




Again, thanks to everyone who expressed concern.