Hexane Methanol (MCHM) Meets Freedom Industries

300,000 still without water after chemical spill: 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) 

The Freedom Industries site in Charleston, West Virginia on Jan. 11 Photograph by Ty Wright for the Washington Post via Getty Images

A solvent "leaked out of a 40,000-gallon tank at a Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River."

It may be some days before many West Virginia residents have clean tap water again

"Freedom Industries, the company responsible for contaminating the water of 300,000 Kanawha Valley residents" -

See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/News/201401120056#sthash.8ietfxq8.dpuf

(Credit: Shutterstock)

FOR practical reason, let's be clear Who Is Behind the Freedom Industries.  

Bloomberg News Media cites:

Freedom’s website list Dennis P. Farrell as president.

Enviromine Inc. President Gary Southern was speaking on behalf of the Freedom Industries.

As Bloomberg News Media reports that, Carl L. Kennedy II took part in forming the Company, and is a two time convicted felon. Bloomberg also cites from its website that the Freedom Industries is “a full-service producer of specialty chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries.”

Most notably, the Freedom Industries have a business tie to Koch Brothers, as the Freedom Industries secured distribution deal for a product made by Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC. Georgia-Pacific is owned by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.   Americans for Prosperity backed by the the billionaire industrialists, Koch Brothers, has been lobbying against environmental regulations, while claiming to protect "American Dream" whose claim never seems to live up to what "American Dream" is about for an ordinary person in America.

Please Remember that Donald J Trump also signed to relax Coal Mining Stream Protection Rules back in February 2017, Undoing Obama Environmental Legacy. 

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Taxonomy

• Water
• Public Health
• Mine Water Management
• Produced Water From Oil & Gas Industry
• Mine Drainage
• Energy
• Water Regulation
• Industrial
• Water & Wastewater

2 Comments

1. BECAUSE the topic is most relevant. 

   Those in Washington, in sleep or delusion of "alternate" reality, it has literally everything to with it.

   Trump is highly relevant in this topic, when Trump appointed a man Scott Pruitt as the EPA admin chief, now relaxing pesticides rules, coal mines rules, now ready to get out of the Climate Agreement.

   Electing Trump meant all that. From coal to toxic contaminants. This isnt just about what chemicals or mistake that was made. 

   It is industrial power that tries now to control how toxic chemicals could be approved because of illiterate Americans voting for Trump. 

2. Why is this article here? The event  is many years old and the issue  has been settled. The water company has agreed to pay about 150 million dollars in damages. They made the mistake of assuming that their better than average treatment system that included GAC and permanganate  would remove the contaminants. They were wrong because they were engineers who did not understand organic chemistry and teh well known  lack of  affinity for GAC by alcohols. Extraction studies on the GAC found zero residues of the chemical, i.e., it was not binding, as was easily  predictable from the structure.  They should have intermittently closed the intake from the river to let the chemical plume pass. Fortunately, the chemical was not very toxic but it had a very detectable odor, that might have been increased by the permanganate by oxidation to an aldehyde. There were some short term  irritations, but no significant illnesses based upon several follow up epidemiological studies.  Freedom industries is gone.

     Also, what does it have to do with Trump?   By the way, there really was not an Obama environmental legacy. The EPA was reduced by about 3000  people during the Obama administration.