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We should be outraged by the Elk River chemical spill

Last Monday, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told West Virginia residents it was up to them whether or not to drink water contaminated by the spill of the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River.

That a sitting governor could tell the people he serves in the wake of this environmental health disaster that it is their decision whether or not to drink water from a public water supply is shameful. This is protecting his constituents? We should be outraged.

Outraged that state and local government officials thought it was a good idea to allow the storage of toxic chemicals anywhere near a water supply.

And don't forget outrage at the poor federal response to the disaster. The Society for Environmental Journalists and the Society for Professional Journalists expressed their own outrage in an open letter to the heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, writing that "since the Charleston story broke January 9, many news reporters have had real difficulty getting access to—and meaningful responses from—federal officials." For example, it took the EPA a week to comment on the safety of the water, and CDC has refused requests by the Charleston Gazette for the basis of its claim that 1 ppm of MCHM was safe.

This post has been updated to remove a statement suggesting that West Virginia American Water, in supplying fresh water to residents whose drinking water had been contaminated, was filling tankers from the same unsafe source. According to The Charleston Gazette, a utility official said the water for the tankers, which residents complained had the same odor as the contaminated water, had been tested and found to have no detectable level of crude MCHM, but that the company changed the source anyway in order to reassure customers.

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