It's just about over now, and probably I should know better than to poke the bear. But there are a couple of things: From all I have read, the response was handled pretty well. Maybe the lasting impact is that people will realize that 'clean coal' requires cleaning, and the chemicals involved need to be handled right. This chemical is cyclohexane with a couple of dangly bits, and contains no chloride. So I would not be too terrified. OTOH, if it is in tap water at high enough concentrations to smell, I'd not drink. The precautions that had been given for pregnant or lactating women seem appropriate. Actually I am persistent that (especially first trimester) ladies ought to stay out of chem labs that use any organics. Perhaps you can imagine how that goes over in this laissez-faire country Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy Company behind W.Va. chemical spill files for bankruptcy - U.S. News which is kind of interesting because it is a Koch Company so one would not think that 'deep pockets' should be a problem. If anyone notes information about river ecology studies being conducted downstream, I'd appreciate the link. There has been a lot of research about 'indicator species' (usually aquatic insect larvae) and it would be a shame if no one is looking.
I hunch it's more about avoiding responsibility than a lack of cash. Following the mantra of 'privatise profits, socialise losses' is part of how those pockets got so deep.
Thanks for the link. It sounds like a big 'spill'. It be odd which stories become bid news in the media and which ones we never hear about. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Heck, everybody covered the spill. It ticks most of the media boxes. I do not wish to imply that only Koch companies wash coal. I think that would be quite inaccurate. They would only stand out if they were particularly lax, or failed to follow whatever laws are in place for such activities.
Here are some key articles and and sources to follow on this spill: Toxicity Unknown | January 20, 2014 Issue - Vol. 92 Issue 3 | Chemical & Engineering News Elemental - Wired Science (the latter is Deborah Blum science writer) Can you see these links Tochatihu? Another article said near zero fish kill. Elk is a good fishing river. I do not know about benthic organisms (insect larvae), my experience with that is in smaller stream monitoring. See expert comments in the first link, the MCHM is considered to be relatively non-toxic but it is frustrating because our laws do not always require tox testing of older chemicals in use for many years. So there was not much tox information to go on. Implications so far we need better tox data base and better storage tank regs for cases like this. I also think it will be interesting to hear official cause of leak. Company is saying ground was frozen under tank and unknown object punctured tank.
Yes, I have read the linked material now. For Freedom to declare bankruptcy, they surely must be expecting a heavy penalty
It is a common mining company technique (following the general motivation mentioned by hyo) is to shed "companies" while maintaining operations. Specifically, going bankrupt in the mining business and having another company take over (using the exact same equipment and personnel as the bankrupt company) is the rule, not the exception.
On this, I doubt there are more than 10% of reactionaires that support freedom, the spiller today. I think you missed the biggest things in my view. They had not inspected these tanks full of hazardous chemicals that were sitting over the source of drinking water for an entire city for over 2 decades. After the spill they did not disclose all the chemicals that spilled for over a week. Bad on WV for having such lax regulation, but even worse, freedom should not need a regulation to follow the practice of at least periodically checking their tanks, and when they leak why did they not tell the water district everything that they needed to be aware of. These chemicals have nothing to do with clean coal, just coal, and its been favored over everything else since the 1970s. You don't see these poor regulations unless someone is actively asking for them. Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy The koch brothers are just giving the liability to the creditors and citizens of west virginia. Why would they pay if they can get someone else to pay. These guys are not exactly good corporate citizens. The question really is was there criminal neglence where maybe we can actually send some of these bad executives to jail. I doubt it will happen, but there had to be an active decission to ignore industry practices and not do any inspections. I think like with the bp spill, also I think a case where there was strong evidence of criminial negligence, that it will take years to really know the damage.
