CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha-Charleston Health Department Director Doctor Rahul Gupta believes the first-year of medical monitoring in connection with the water emergency would cost approximately $750,000.
“For a bare boned program for the first year,” Gupta told members of the legislature’s Water Resources Committee Wednesday. “We would have to bring in experts. The integrity and the transparency of this process has to be impeccable.”
Gupta has been calling for medical monitoring in the weeks following the Jan. 9 leak of Crude MCHM in the Elk River that touched off the nine-county water emergency. Such a program has not been approved. Gupta said again Wednesday it should get started soon.
Dr. Gupta also told lawmakers medical monitoring should continue for 20 years.