Why aren’t we hearing more about this?
Up to 5000 gallons of a Hazardous Chemical entered the Elk River in WV from a hole in a 40 THOUSAND gallon tank in a chemical storage facility directly on the banks of the river, contaminating the water supply of 9 counties. It turns out there was also a breach in the containment field that was supposed to protect the river from leaking tanks.
Chris Christie can’t be blamed.
But maybe we should be hearing about this:
US House passed bill ravaging toxic-waste law
on same day as W. Virginia chemical spill
Why are we hearing about that spill at all?
Because it has affected the municipal water supply and impacted major businesses as well as the meeting of the state legislature in WV.
Regular folks in coal country have been battling the contamination from coal mining and processing for decades, but a homeowner’s private well gives too much leeway for the industry to claim plausible deniability, or to simply pay them off (plus a gag order). Homeowners and small towns don’t have the $$ to fight.
It is likely to turn out that WV won’t have the $$ to fight.
Please don’t pass it off as something that happened way down there and won’t affect me. For those in the anti-Fracking fight. These, and other hazardous chemicals are used in the Fracking process too. Our chemical industry is HUGE. Scary chemicals are used in all kinds of processes that we can’t even imagine. Tank cities are located on waterways all over the country, including spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
Isn’t it time we paid a little more attention?
I am sure that there are major efforts in place to keep this story contained. This should be the lead story on all the major networks, papers, news feeds etc. My Facebook page should be overflowing with shared stories (I am an environmentalist with many environmentalist friends and ‘LIKES’ many environmental group’s pages). and yet I only seem to have one friend posting about it?
Maybe we could encourage Mylie to do a half nude twerking song about it?
Maybe she could twerk with Chris Christie?
Then it would make every news feed in the world!