Ignorance of the basic properties of a chemical stored near a West Virginia water utility hampered the emergency response when the chemical spilled last month, state officials told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

“We knew very little about this particular chemical,” testified Randy C Huffman, head of the state’s department of environmental protection. Although the Environmental Protection Agency monitors underground tanks, he said, chemical companies are not required to disclose the contents of above-ground tanks.

“This leaves virtually unregulated an entire universe of pollutants stored in above-ground tanks,” Huffman said, including 20,000 toxic chemicals that have emerged since federal regulators last updated an official list of pollutants.

Hundreds of residents in nine West Virginia counties were sickened and more than a dozen were hospitalized after chemicals used in the coal industry entered the drinking water supply through intake pipes in the Elk River, located 1.5 miles downstream from a leaking tank. At least two chemicals, MCHM (4-methylcyclohexanemethanol) and PPH (polyglycol ethers), entered the drinking supply, officials said.

Officials struggled at first to explain potential dangers from MCHM to the public, Huffman said. Ignorance of PPH was not an issue because the company that controlled the tank, Freedom Industries, did not notify officials that PPH had leaked until 12 days after the spill, according to regulators.

Subcommittee chairman Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, accused Freedom Industries of “reckless conduct” and a “failure to report properly” in the incident.



The chemicals may have flowed into the river for 10 hours – longer than previously believed – before authorities were notified of the spill, state secretary Natalie Tennant told the committee.

Freedom Industries reported the spill just after noon on 9 January, following complaints hours earlier of a strange smell by nearby residents.

The government declared the water safe to drink four days after the spill, but many residents continue to mistrust the official guidance.

“I have families telling me that they are melting snow just to be able to give their children baths,” Tennant said. Restaurants in Charleston, the capital, are still serving bottled water “because customers don’t trust what is coming out of the tap,” she said.

The West Virginia congressional delegation has proposed legislation that would improve regulation of above-ground storage tanks nationwide. A parallel effort would update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act.



A risk assessment for “chemical vulnerabilities” in the Elk River area had not been conducted since a 2002 investigation prompted by the 9/11 attacks, Cardin said. The presence of MCHM was not noted at the time, he said.

“Our laws are just not strong enough to deal with the current situation,” said Cardin. “Risk assessments need to be updated in a much more timely way.”