Waiting in line at a water truck in Charleston, W.Va., Jan. 10. Charleston, W.Va., Jan. 19 — A chemical spill into the nearby Elk River has caused hundreds of local residents to be hospitalized. Now, 10 days after the initial spill, many of the 300,000 people who had to avoid tap water since Jan. 9 find it is still contaminated. People are still being burned and suffering respiratory stress and nausea when using the water after it was deemed safe. Thousands of gallons of crude methyl cylcohexane methanol (MCHM) had oozed through a porous containment wall from a Freedom Industries’ containment tank into the river and subsequently passed into a water facility intake that serves the 300,000 area residents with tap water. The tanks had not been inspected since 1991. Hospitals stayed open during the whole period. A nurse, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Workers World she received a chemical burn while working. Freedom Industries then moved the containers of crude MCHM to nearby Nitro, W.Va. When the Department of Environmental Protection inspected the new storage location, it cited Freedom for five different violations, one of which was the lack of secondary containment structures. Other violations include failing to follow . . .
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