CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On the same day West Virginia American Water Company announced the changing out of its carbon filters at its Kanawha Valley water plant Charleston had been completed, the state DEP announced it was investigating a small spill at the Freedom Industries site just up the Elk River.
The spill was discovered by a DEP inspector at around 5 p.m. Thursday. The inspector noticed a sump pump in place to pump overflow from a storm water collection trench to a storage tank was not working and water was spilling into the Elk River.
The DEP said in a news release issued late Thursday night it was unclear if the water entering the river contained any crude MCHM, the chemical that spilled from the site into the Elk Jan. 9 that touched off the water emergency to parts of nine West Virginia counties.
Samples taken from the trench, the intake at the West Virginia American plant and the treated water were sent to multiple labs for testing with results expected back Friday morning.
The DEP said no odors were reported at the site Thursday. It added it was able to discover the overflow because the agency has inspectors at the Freedom cleanup daily to monitor the work and the containment facilities.