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February 11, 2014

Congressional Hearing Fails to Conclude if Water in West Virginia is Safe After Spill 
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In West Virginia, Freedom Industries, the company responsible for last
month's chemical spill that left 300,000 people without drinking water,
decided to skip a congressional hearing on the fallout Monday. During
the hearing, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito questioned the
president of the water utility, West Virginia American Water.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito: "Is the water safe to drink?"

Jeff Mc Intyre, president of West Virginia American Water: "As a water
company, we don't set the safe standards, but we are in compliance with
all the standards set by the health-based agencies, like the CDC, the
West Virginia Bureau of Public Health, and we have been since the 13th
of January. Yet I recognize the customers' fear associated with the
smell of something in their water."

The hearing in West Virginia failed to definitively establish whether
the water is actually safe to drink. The state's highest health
official, Letitia Tierney, said she believes the water is "usable," but
added, "everybody has a different definition of safe." There are reports
the water still smells like licorice — a sign of contamination by
the chemical MCHM.

 

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