The Elk River is a scenic water body that flows East to West, past the famous Snowshoe Resort near Cass Scenic railroad and railtrail, gorgeous mountains, through pristine valleys, and through the city of Charleston, West Virginia. The river is known for great flyfishing and fat smallmouth, and a byway has been proposed in order to give more tourists access to this wonderful attraction.
Last week, Freedom Industries, a coal mining company, spilled over 7500 gallons of 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol(MCHM) into the Elk River. . "What exactly is MCHM?", I've been wondering, so, I did a little research. This chemical is a foaming agent, used to clean up coal after it is pulled from the seams that run deep through the Appalachian Mountains. Rich dirt clods and clay clumps bind to MCHM foam and fall away from the dark rock, and, since MCHM is a byproduct of other chemical processes, it is used as a foaming agent instead of other safer, more expensive alternatives. That's not really a big deal, and it's not even really corroborated, because the chemical has never been fully tested by our Federal government. "Why?" you might ask. Well, it comes down to the Toxic Substances Control Act and how it's not really been enforced.
The Toxic Substances Control Act was enacted by congress in 1976 to set clear guidelines for testing all chemicals that are used by industry. However, we don't have the money or political will to carry out that charge. I could go on and on about TSCA, why it is a good idea that hasn't been fully implemented for political reasons and special interests, but you can read all about that on the EPA website or just go to Wikipedia. A list of chemicals that have been tested by the EPA under the TSCA will display names of about 150 chemicals and their results. There are over 85,000 existing chemicals, so this constitutes about 0.1% completion. In short, comprehensive testing of synthetic industrial chemicals is not going to happen any time soon.
Unfortunately, over 300,000 people were affected by a ban on drinking water in the wake of this spill, but I would like to connect some dots and ask a question. What if, in a heavily populated area where natural gas, oil, and coal extraction is taking place, a similar leak had happened, with similarly unknown chemicals?
Pennsylvania, for example, is saturated with natural gas wells along the Marcellus/Devonian/Utica shale plays, deposits that run right under Pittsburgh and other big cities. Imagine a spill that affects Pittsburgh and the 9 counties that surround it. Now we're talking over 1 million individuals. Philadelphia and surrounding areas? Almost 6.5 million. With fracking, as well as other minerals extraction, lots of chemicals are involved in getting those resources out of the ground. And, as you can imagine, those chemicals go largely untested.
We still don't know entirely what MCHM does to our bodies and those of our families, and we probably won't understand the ramifications of this spill for a long time. We're just worried about people right now, and for good reason, but who knows what this spill did to the environment of this gorgeous West Virginia river?
Now, I am not into kicking private businesses, and I don't want to discourage support of private industry, but when you are affecting the environment, rivers, mountains, resources that affect hundreds of thousands of people, stakes are really high, and those organizations that are working around our shared environments, manipulating the 'commons', are under, and should be under incredible scrutiny. Besides, I'm a fly fisherman, so there. :)
So, let's just get to work testing everything and controlling the worst chemicals, right? Right. It's just that people need to speak up, and stay motivated to hold industry accountable for their actions. Reckless containment and loud pontifications about de-regulation of Federal laws aren't helping. If you hear people questioning the role of regulators and the government, speak up, because, with diminishing fossil and energy resources and the largest shale and coal deposits in our backyards here in the Northeast, time's a wasting and there's never been a better time to be an environmental activist than right now.
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