“Safe water” sickens WV kids and puts teachers in the hospital.

[riqster]

http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/safe-water-sickens-wv-kids-and-puts-teachers-in-the-hospital/

" This post is for all the idiot Reagan-worshipping fools who still believe that “government is the problem”: because of all the deregulation St. Ronnie championed, there is no way to tell if water from the Elk River is fit for human use. So the locals trusted the unregulated chemical industry, declared the water to be safe, and a load of kids and teachers got very ill indeed.

The licorice smell typical of MCHM contamination resurfaced in schools early in the week. Several students reported burning in their noses and eyes as well as skin irritation. Multiple people were hospitalized, including a teacher who fainted and a cook at one of the schools, according to Ashton Marra at West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The reported symptoms are consistent with exposure to “crude MCHM.”

Note: saying “Duuuh, I dunno, sure, I guess it’s probably kinda sorta safe-ish” is NOT good public policy. When our elected officials have become so lax in their civic responsibilities that we can’t tell if our drinking water will hospitalize us or not, it is time to make a few changes. And the first step towards change is admitting that we have a problem.

A little further south, a load of toxic coal ash is fouling the river that another city uses for its water supply. The locals there have also said the water is OK. They are absolutely maybe guesstimating the water to be pretty much safe-ish to drink. Until it isn’t.

It’s time we knocked Ronald McReagan off his pedestal and realized this harsh truth: government is not always bad. In fact, it can do a lot of good. A well-managed regulatory system can protect us from harm.

Think about that, America, as you play Russian Roulette with each and every drink of water. Richard Nixon gave us the gift of safe water. And since 1979, his fellow “Republicans” have been busily taking that safety away from us.

Think about it, America, as you drink with one hand, and prepare to call for an ambulance with the other."

Source info at the link.

[Rider3]

1. So Gullible

If those people believed the "powers-that-be" who claimed that the water was OK to use, then they're dumber beyond belief. They'll never get the chemicals out of that water supply. Not in our lifetime, anyway.

[KansDem]

2. Can't an independent agency actually conduct a test of the water...

...to see what chemicals/contaminants are present?

Maybe like the EPA or FDA?

I remember reading recently about "proprietary information" precluding that but--dammit--we're talking about kids here!

[riqster]

4. The problem is, no one knows what a safe level is.

That chemical was never required to be tested, never required to be researched, and so private industry never tested or researched.

Deregulation at its finest.

[justiceischeap]

3. I rather take my chances with Pepsi. nt

[riqster]

9. Never tried bathing in it, myself.

Let me know how that works.

[ladjf]

5. If significant amounts of the toxic chemicals that leaked were able to penetrate hundreds of feet

below ground level,toxic traces of those chemicals could linger for many years, possible even thousands, if the pollution
plume were to reach the aquifer level.

The best hope for this disaster, is that almost 100% of the chemicals flowed about ground into the nearby river and was largely diluted and dispersed above ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. The problem will be

what amount of this chemical is toxic and how well a dispersal will be. Better than nothing.

I fear for the animals and the environment.

[ladjf]

7. Correct. Hopefully, the toxic components will be diluted enough to cease having a

harmful effect.

[grilled onions]

8. There is safe and safe-ish and plain old ish....

what about the fish? In this part of the country hunting and fishing are means to put food on the table so even if the family can afford to drink bottled water or other drinks critters must drink somewhere and the poor fish have no where to go if they can still survive that muck. Meanwhile what will show up in the bodies of especially the young and vulnerable years down the road?

[freshwest]

10. Get this: WV 'Democrat' blames Obama and the EPA:

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in WV uses SOTU to attack Obama on coal, blame EPA for water crisis

With "Democrats" like these, who needs Republicans?



Press release:

TENNANT STATEMENT ON STATE OF THE UNION

Tennant: ‘President is Wrong on Coal’

(CHARLESTON, WV) – West Virginia Secretary of State and U.S. Senate candidate Natalie Tennant released the following statement ahead of tonight’s State of the Union Address. Reports say the President is expected to focus on economic opportunity. But, Tennant criticized the President’s policies on coal, saying his position hurts opportunity and threatens West Virginia jobs.

“If the President wants to promote opportunity, he needs to rethink his energy policies. The President is wrong on coal and I will fight him or anyone else who wants to take our coal jobs,” Tennant said.

“At the height of our water crisis, no one could tell us how harmful the chemical was or what levels were safe. But, the EPA has time to go after our coal jobs in West Virginia? That doesn’t make sense. The EPA needs a new set of priorities.”

https://twitter.com/NatalieforWV

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024406921

And not to be left out...

Boehner blames Obama for WV chemical spill; Calls for more deregulation

Published on Jan 14, 2014

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Tuesday blamed the Obama administration for a disastrous chemical spill in West Virginia.

He said at a news conference in D.C. that the country had enough environmental and health regulations, but they were not being properly enforced.

"The issue is this, we have enough regulations on the books," Boehner remarked. "What the administration ought to be doing is actually doing their jobs. Why wasn't this plant inspected since 1991?"

"I am entirely confident that there are ample regulations already on the books to protect the health and safety of the American people," Boehner added. "Somebody ought to be held accountable here."

"What we try to do is look at those regulations that we think are cumbersome, are over-the-top and are costing our economy jobs. That's what our focus continues to be."

About 300,000 residents in West Virginia were warned last week not to use tap water because it had become contaminated by the chemical spill. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency as restaurants, shops, and schools were forced to shut down.

Methylcyclohexene methanol — a chemical used for coal washing and preparation — leaked from a storage tank at a site run by Freedom Industries into the nearby Elk River.

Chemical manufacturers are required to be inspected in West Virginia, but chemical storage facilities are not.

Randy Huffman, the state's Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, hopes lawmakers will change that following the disastrous spill, according to Metro News.

"For this type of facility, the administrative processes, the records, the certifications, those types of processes are much more important for minimizing the risk of leaks and so forth because, with tanks, you can't always see a leak," he said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=169583

Boehner is willfully ignoring lack of funding to enforce the regulations already on the books and is a member of the party that advocated getting rid of the EPA and not funding Superfund clean up. He really has a lot of nerve to insert himself into this argument. It is affecting his state as well as WV but he is staying on course.

Kennedy calls mountaintop removal mining in W.Va. a crime against people, nature

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday that mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia is a crime, and that if the American people could see it, there would be a revolution.

"We are cutting down the Appalachian Mountains, these historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed that are so much a part of American culture," the environmental attorney said at a rally to stop blasting on southern West Virginia's Coal River Mountain.

"It's God who made these mountains, and it's (Massey Energy chief) Don Blankenship who is cutting them down," Kennedy said.

Kennedy spoke as some 300 environmental activists cheered. At the same time, 200 coal miners jeered. The groups were kept apart by a line of state troopers and metal barricades.

Unfortunately, the LA Times link no longer has the story.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4175428

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to send a message

Author lists mountaintop removal among 'Crimes Against Nature'

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flew over the West Virginia coalfields this week to get a better view of mountaintop removal mines.

Kennedy lunched with West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney, and listened to coalfield residents during a staged town meeting at a Raleigh County church.

The three-day tour was all part of Kennedy’s effort to get a wider audience to hear his message about the “Crimes Against Nature” — the title of his 2004 book — that he says companies commit and governments ignore.

Link no longer there:

http://wvgazette.com/section/News/2007071820

And Kathy Mattea toured the area last week:

'What I saw today shocked me'

Mattea looks, listens to mountaintop removal
By Tara Tuckwiller
Staff writer

Country music star Kathy Mattea spent Tuesday sitting at the edge of an enormous chasm of naked rock — a West Virginia mountaintop removal coal mine — and listening to people’s stories.

One woman told Mattea about the reservoir full of coal waste that looms upstream from a Raleigh County elementary school full of 220 children.

Another showed her photos of the trains that haul millions of dollars worth of coal every week out of the mountain near her house, while her Kanawha County community remains in poverty.

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/2007071031

and she got attacked by the local rw asshat rag, The Daily Mail:

Kathy Mattea can do better
Country music star Kathy Mattea is descended from West Virginia coal miners. But she shares former Vice President Al Gore's beliefs about global warming -- she added a photo of a mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia to his "Inconvenient Truth" slide show -- and Gore's agenda has been hostile to the economic activity that supported her forbears and supports tens of thousands of West Virginians today.

It's a difficult position to be in, and if Mattea is going to enrich the debate on this issue, she should carefully balance her presentation in the future.
Mattea visited the state this week, documentary filmmakers and press in tow. She expressed shock at a mountaintop removal coal mine and cried over a Boone County woman's photos of a mountain that was destroyed by surface mining.

http://www.dailymail.com/story/Opinion/Editorial/2007071310/Kathy+Mattea+can+do+better /

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2923816

for all those to Adenoid_Hynkel:

I read a more recent DU thread with an interview of RFK, Jr. in which he said that these people must hate America, destroying the oldest living ecosystem that has sustained life for millions of years in North America. It is sickening.

At least the coal industry is well represented by the local elected officials.

Part of the electorate in the region voted for the 'job creators.' Maybe some are having second thoughts, but their elected representatives haven't changed their stances on this.

IIRC, there is a racial element to this, as Charleston may be largely black. There was an OP that mentioned it. And I think they are Democratic, and tehy may not have coal jobs.

Sorry, don't have all the links and search is not giving recent results.

[riqster]

11. Kissing Big Coal's ass is traditional for WV politicos.

But more and more, the ordinary people are realizing that they have been screwed by the fossil fuel tycoons.

[freshwest]

13. The citizens could have been self-reliant and had a thriving green economy, instead their state has

been turned into what RFK, Jr. describes as a 'national sacrifice zone' with little left to sustain life, period.

Whatever conspired to get the people to do this to themselves - be it big business, capitalism, religion or media - needs to pay for it. I don't see that coming any time soon by conventional thinking. They are steeped in this and those who have resisted in the past have been killed.

Perhaps this latest disaster, on top of the long-stranding environmental degradation, will make the people say 'Enough is enough.'

Unfortunately, those who are going to die or be disabled by this will be weakened and not put up much resistance. That is part of predatory capitalism's game play, as well. But then it was always part of feudalism, as well. There was a reason aristocrats called the poor or peasants 'little people.' It was due to malnutrition.

This is genocide but the masses have been kept asleep for several generations. Wondering if WV has Medicaid expansion through Obamacare. At least that will document the crime done to these people and hopefully reverse the ongoing destruction.

If we don't lose the state and the country to regressives and their libertarian dystopia they are promoting. This is what the future looks like, otherwise.

This is the sort of view, this kind of waterfall, that many people still hold of WV. But it is no longer the case:

Whether this Executive Order signed by Obama with many partners nationwide will help in WV, I don't know:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110219113

Thanks, riqster for putting this thead up. We need to remind the world what is happening there to the people, wildlife, water, fish and land there.

[WillyT]

12. K & R !!!