A better way to monitor water
Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Last year’s chemical leak quickly spread throughout West Virginia American Water’s Charleston-based distribution system. The water company has announced it will start a continuous monitoring program on the Elk River. Such monitoring is a critical element of a safe water system that detects contamination before it reaches customers.
In a January report to the Legislature, West Virginia American Water described plans to install monitoring equipment to measure water properties like acidity, temperature, salts, minerals and trace organic chemicals.
Unfortunately, the instrument they chose to detect organic chemicals — total organic carbon — has serious limitations and is blind to a broad class of chemicals which includes, remarkably, MCHM, the chemical culprit of last year’s water crisis.
Thousands of pounds of MCHM remain in the soil at the Freedom Industries site just one mile upstream of the Elk River treatment plant intake. The chemical class not detected also includes significant components of diesel fuel and other chemicals, all potential spill candidates and transported by truck and train in the Kanawha Valley.
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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150429/GZ04/150429167/1453
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