CHARLESTON, W.Va., Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the crude MCHM spill that left more than 3,000 West Virginians without potable water, is planning to move 3,500 gallons of the chemical to a coal facility in Pennsylvania.
The move comes at the request of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, which also demanded the company get rid of the chemical, which is used to clean coal, at another industrial site in the state.
The news also comes a day after a federal grand jury opened a criminal investigation into the chemical spill that sent several hundred residents to local hospitals and left water unusable for more than a week.
At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said: “The water ban has been lifted, but too many west Virginians are left wondering if their water is really safe.”
“Who is to say there isn’t a third chemical they aren’t telling us about? They haven’t been forthcoming about it, and that’s why many of us still won’t drink the water,” Charleston resident Mouaz Haffar told the Scientific American. “They’ve broken the public trust.”
[Pittsburg Business Times] [CNN] [Scientific American]
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