A storage tank at a Freedom Industries storage facility in Charleston, W.Va., with the chemical designation MCHM, for 4-methylcyclohexane-methanol, the chemical that leaked into the Elk River. Steve Helber/AP

When West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection inspectors visited Freedom Industries, where a chemical spill into a river caused 300,000 people to lose access to clean water last week, they found a 400-square-foot pool of the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane-methanol, or MCHM, sitting outside one of Freedom Industries’ tanks.

Freedom Industries hadn’t told the DEP about the spill — regulators were there because of nearby residents’ complaints about a funny smell coming from the company’s storage facilities.

To contain the spill, Freedom Industries appeared to be using a cinder block and a 50-pound bag of absorptive industrial powder, according to the Charleston Gazette.

"This was a Band-Aid approach," state DEP air quality inspector Mike Kolb told the paper. "It was apparent that this was not an event that had just happened."

It’s not clear how long the chemical had been leaking into the river before it was discovered by the DEP, but it’s also not clear — at least from a legal standpoint — that anything went wrong. The patchwork of lax state and federal regulations governing chemical storage facilities like those owned by Freedom Industries allowed the company to go uninspected for decades. And loopholes in environmental laws may mean that the disposal of potentially harmful chemicals into the Elk River — whether intentional or not — was perfectly legal.

West Virginia has a long legacy of regulations that go unenforced by state agencies.

In 2011, after coal giant Massey Energy (which was bought out by another coal company later that year) pumped toxic coal slurry into the ground, residents in the surrounding area had to sue Massey to get damages for their contaminated water. West Virginia’s DEP wouldn’t pursue fines against Massey because regulators didn’t believe there was any connection between coal slurry and water pollution, despite numerous independent studies stating otherwise.

Before that, a New York Times investigation found that the state DEP allowed companies that violated environmental laws to skirt punishment and fines as long as they promised to work on their issues. The investigation also found a revolving door of DEP officials leaving for jobs in the industry they regulate.

West Virginia ignored federal recommendations in 2010 to implement stricter environmental protections, following a string of deadly industrial disasters in the same part of the state as last week’s spill.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month said it was investigating several cases in West Virginia in which residents believed the state DEP did not properly enforce its own regulations.

And the DEP admitted to the Charleston Gazette this week that regulators didn’t have a plan in place in case of a leak at Freedom Industries, despite its proximity to an intake point for a water company that serves hundreds of thousands in the state.