“Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?” Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The ongoing water issues in West Virginia caused by the chemical leak at Freedom Industries more than three weeks ago is taking on shades of Alice’s fantastic trip down the rabbit hole; when will this all end?
Just yesterday, as 300,000 West Virginians marked the third week of tap water tribulations, Governor Tomblin ordered more fresh water to be delivered to the affected areas.
Go to the store and you’ll see folks buying up bottled water as fast as it’s stocked. Restaurants post signs and tell customers they’re using only bottled water. Ask around and you’ll find a lot of folks saying they still won’t drink the water.
Marshall University environmental engineer and state Environmental Quality Board member Scott Simonton set off yet another round of water worries Wednesday when he announced he had run his own tests and one had turned up formaldehyde. “It’s frightening, it really is frightening,” Simonton told lawmakers.
It took the rest of the day and part of the next for state officials to try to calm folks down. They called into question Simonton’s methodology and pointed out that the finding of 32 parts per billion is not at a risky level and could have come from a lot of places.
But the bell had been rung… again. One WCHS radio listener called to say she had heard she should not shower because there is formaldehyde in the water. Dr. Rahul Gupta, Health Officer and Executive Director for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department told me he drank a glass of tap water the other night and his wife gave him the dickens about it.
The real problem is that while water company and state health officials are telling people the water is safe, and they are drinking it themselves, they are unable to provide rock solid assurances about the possible health effects of the water. That’s because the chemical that leaked, MCHM, has not been researched and tested as thoroughly as many other chemicals.
Now there’s talk about medical monitoring where people who were exposed to the water could be tested for years, even if there are no ascertainable injuries or symptoms. That might provide people with some reassurance, but it would also be wildly expensive for that many people.
This story is going to go on for awhile, a long while. Just like Alice’s fall down the rabbit hole was only the beginning of a long, strange trip.