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Campaigning for a safe water system after the WV water crisis Charleston,
West Virginia, United StatesEnvironment
Update (8/15/14): Thanks to everyone who contributed to help us
reach our $4,000 goal! We are currently in the midst of a Public
Service Commission investigation of the water company that has
been delayed by the water company's refusal to answer many questions that we and
others have been asking, especially related to their emergency
planning and preparedness. Because of the delay in the case, we
are seeking additional funds to support an extension of our
organizer's time.
Who We Are:
Citizens in West Virginia are coming together to create a blueprint for a safe and healthy water system for the nine-county region impacted by the January 2014 chemical spill into the Elk River. We are paying among the highest water rates but we have one of the leakiest and least safe systems. Without changes to the system, we risk a needless repeat of this year’s water crisis!
Advocates for a Safe Water System is a community group that formed after the January 9th, 2014 chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water for 300,000 people -- the largest drinking water contamination event in US history. The chemical mixture that spilled, crude MCHM and PPH, is used in washing coal. The local health department estimates that 100,000 people experienced symptoms from drinking ,smelling or contacting the chemicals in the weeks following the spill; there is no data on the long-term health impacts from exposure to these chemicals.
What We Are Doing:
Advocates for a Safe Water System formed because we were outraged that our water utility, WV American Water, continued to bill us for water that was making people sick!
We then discovered how ill-prepared WV American Water was for the spill:
- They had no upstream monitoring in place and were not even aware of the potential contaminants to our drinking water supply.
- Their water filters absorbed some of the chemical and then slowly released it, so the filters became an ongoing source of MCHM contamination for several months after the spill.
- They had no alternative source of water available as back-up when the spill happened.
- After the Bureau of Public Health conducted an assessment in 2002 that found that WV American Water's system highly susceptible to contamination, the utility did nothing with this information.
Our communities deserve a safe and healthy water system. Our state Public Service Commission, which regulates the water utility, just launched an investigation into WV American Water’s response to the spill, which will be ongoing through the end of 2014. We are working to ensure that citizen voices and concerns are heard in this investigation. We are planning to draw on local expertise in sourcewater protection, upstream monitoring, and water treatment and infrastructure to create a blueprint for a safe and healthy water system for the area impacted by the Elk River spill. This blueprint, a Citizen's Water Utility Plan, will serve as the basis for our advocacy at the Public Service Commission and state legislature.
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