DEP never saw Freedom's pollution control plans (WV spill)

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201402010083
The Charleston Gazette
Feb 1, 2014
DEP never saw Freedom's pollution control plans

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection officials never reviewed two key pollution-prevention plans for the Freedom Industries tank farm before the Jan. 9 chemical leak that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 residents, according to interviews and documents obtained under the state's public-records law.

Under a DEP-approved water pollution permit for the site, Freedom Industries was required to prepare a storm-water pollution prevention plan and a groundwater protection plan.

Neither plan was among the documents contained in Freedom's permit files at the DEP's Water and Waste Management office, according to copies of those files released last week in response to a Gazette-Mail Freedom of Information Act request.

The disclosure raises more questions about whether DEP officials used all their available tools to prevent an incident like the leak of what the most recent estimate says was a spill of 10,000 gallons of the coal-cleaning chemical Crude MCHM into the Elk River.... MORE

[theHandpuppet]

1. Freedom call to DEP: “Dike is containing the material"

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201402010015

The Charleston Gazette
February 1, 2014
Freedom call to DEP: “Dike is containing the material”
By David Gutman

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- When a Freedom Industries employee called the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to report the chemical leak that would contaminate the region's drinking water, he said the leaky tank's containment dike was working and he did not think any chemical would enter the river.

Bob Reynolds, the Freedom employee who called the DEP at 12:05 p.m. on Jan. 9, did not even mention the river until about five minutes into the six-and-a-half minute call, and then only when he was directly asked about it.

When Reynolds was asked by the DEP operator if the chemical was going into a creek or stream, he said, "Ah, don't know at this time. It's located right on the Elk River and right now the dike is containing the material, so we don't anticipate it going into the river."

The state Division of Homeland Security posted a recording of the call on its website Friday night... MORE