Imagine the panic if such a don't-touch-the-water advisory was issued in a large city. :wacko:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304347904579311401555482172
At least 100,000 customers in nine West Virginia counties were told not to drink, bathe, cook or wash clothes using their tap water because of a chemical spill into the Elk River in Charleston, with Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declaring a state of emergency Thursday for those areas.
The chemical, a foaming agent used in the coal preparation process, leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries, overran a containment area and went into the river earlier Thursday. The amount that spilled wasn't immediately known, but West Virginia American Water has a treatment plant nearby and it is the company's customers who are affected.
"The water has been contaminated," said Mr. Tomblin, who didn't know how long the emergency declaration would last.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.philly.com%2Fimages%2F600%2A450%2F3b404add00bb419bb924594f700a7fd3-4314dedf68f67a01480f6a7067007d6f.jpg&hash=9067ad36d7e88afd395697ec6bac46ea3758df59)
Are things that happen in West Virginia comparable to major cities?
Anyway, after most major earthquakes, Californians in the affected areas are told not to trust the tap water.
To some degree they would be...this isn't similar to not trusting your tap water due to a fear of impurities. You have the head of the local water company and the Governor saying the tap water is contaminated with a dangerous chemical and it is unsafe for any use...I'm pretty sure you'd see mass pandemonium anywhere in the country an announcement like that was made.
Quote from: OttoVonBismarck on January 10, 2014, 12:17:40 AM
To some degree they would be...this isn't similar to not trusting your tap water due to a fear of impurities. You have the head of the local water company and the Governor saying the tap water is contaminated with a dangerous chemical and it is unsafe for any use...I'm pretty sure you'd see mass pandemonium anywhere in the country an announcement like that was made.
Yeah, this would be a mess anywhere. I remember that Massachusetts had a water main break in the pipeline that brings water from the Quabbin Reservoir to dozens of towns and it caused quite a ruckus.
Quote from: Phillip V on January 09, 2014, 11:02:09 PM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.philly.com%2Fimages%2F600%2A450%2F3b404add00bb419bb924594f700a7fd3-4314dedf68f67a01480f6a7067007d6f.jpg&hash=9067ad36d7e88afd395697ec6bac46ea3758df59)
That looks like a Country Mart. We have those here. :x I guess it's a step up from IGA, though. :hmm:
Quote from: Phillip V on January 09, 2014, 11:02:09 PM
leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries
Freedom Industries?
We sell freedom!
Quote from: Caliga on January 10, 2014, 07:52:22 AM
Quote from: Phillip V on January 09, 2014, 11:02:09 PM
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.philly.com%2Fimages%2F600%2A450%2F3b404add00bb419bb924594f700a7fd3-4314dedf68f67a01480f6a7067007d6f.jpg&hash=9067ad36d7e88afd395697ec6bac46ea3758df59)
That looks like a Country Mart. We have those here. :x I guess it's a step up from IGA, though. :hmm:
Going by the tags, it looks like a Kroger. Mind you, Kroger locations tend to be a bit old & run-down in WV.
Looks like a Marsh's or a Fulmer's.
What the hell is a Fulmers el jefe?
Quote from: katmai on January 10, 2014, 09:53:25 AM
What the hell is a Fulmers el jefe?
A shitty local supermarket. Think IGA, but even more run down.
I went way too local with that reference.
I think that supermarket looks fine.
How does a not-rundown market looks like for you guys?
Gotcha. Just scared me as I have Fulmer family from
Dayton area. :lol:
Quote from: katmai on January 10, 2014, 10:03:27 AM
Gotcha. Just scared me as I have Fulmer family from
Dayton area. :lol:
Doesn't sound Hispanic. :P
Considering Mothers side if family is German-Irish I would think so.
Quote from: Grey Fox on January 10, 2014, 10:03:18 AM
I think that supermarket looks fine.
How does a not-rundown market looks like for you guys?
I don't think it looks like a Kroger... I'm sure I'll be in Kroger this weekend so I'll try to pay attention to the signage, etc.
...and the market in that pic doesn't look run-down based on the pic itself, but if it is a Country Mart, it's going to be chock full of crap. I'm talking green baloney, people.
Quote from: katmai on January 10, 2014, 10:08:50 AM
Considering Mothers side if family is German-Irish I would think so.
Let me casually racist, ok?
Local preppers are having a field day with this. I'm Facebook friends with one because we went to high school together and she amuses me-- with all the posts her prepper friends make on her wall, it gives an interesting window into that hobby/lifestyle.
Freedom Industries is a little too on the nose as a name for a company that contaminates the water supply, if it was fiction. Of course, you can't argue with reality.
Where I grew up in Florida it wasn't safe to drink the tap water. As is the case in much of the world.
Quote from: alfred russel on January 10, 2014, 01:27:41 PM
Where I grew up in Florida it wasn't safe to drink the tap water. As is the case in much of the world.
Well it is one thing not to be able to drink it, that is normal. It is another not to even be able to use it for washing or cooking.
Quote from: alfred russel on January 10, 2014, 01:27:41 PM
Where I grew up in Florida it wasn't safe to drink the tap water. As is the case in much of the world.
3rd world conditions :(
Quote from: Valmy on January 10, 2014, 09:28:52 AM
Quote from: Phillip V on January 09, 2014, 11:02:09 PM
leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries
Freedom Industries?
We sell freedom!
Used to be called French Industries.
Quote from: Caliga on January 10, 2014, 10:08:53 AM
...and the market in that pic doesn't look run-down based on the pic itself, but if it is a Country Mart, it's going to be chock full of crap. I'm talking green baloney, people.
I've never heard of Country Mart, so I doubt that's what it is. Looks like an IGA to me.
Well, the good news is that I am sure West Virginia has strong laws in place to punish the company doing to misdeed - much like Texas does.
Calling it dangerous is a bit over the top. Basically it is soap. Or, at least special industrial bubble soap. Probably not nice to drink, but certainly not arsenic... though it almost certainly contains some fungicide, herbicide and insecticide.
Basically, this is a chemical added to water which is sprayed on piles of coal (and gypsum and other fine grain bulk products) to prevent the coal dust from blowing all over the place (giving everybody cancer). Since water either evaporates, runs off (carrying much of the find dust with it) or freezes in cold termperatures chemicals were added to form a water film over the coal, keeping it moist. This means dust doesn't spread and it keeps the coal from degenerating and/or burning.
It is all round good stuff. It is basically advanced soap.
That's good to know, Vike.
It's still somewhat inconvenient to have in your drinking water supply.
Coal as a power source is crazy dangerous in the first place. Kills a lot of people.
Quote from: Jacob on January 10, 2014, 07:36:07 PM
That's good to know, Vike.
It's still somewhat inconvenient to have in your drinking water supply.
I just think it is important to remember what is being spilled when 'chemicals' (in scare quotes) are spilled. In this case this chemical makes coal production much less polluting and dangerous. Basically it takes coal production from being 'insanely dangerous' to merely being 'very dangerous'.
Quote from: The Brain on January 11, 2014, 03:18:15 AM
Coal as a power source is crazy dangerous in the first place. Kills a lot of people.
Coal mining pays well. So it's all good.
Quote from: derspiess on January 13, 2014, 09:19:16 AM
Quote from: The Brain on January 11, 2014, 03:18:15 AM
Coal as a power source is crazy dangerous in the first place. Kills a lot of people.
Coal mining pays well. So it's all good.
Dying early sucks though.
Quote from: derspiess on January 13, 2014, 09:19:16 AM
Quote from: The Brain on January 11, 2014, 03:18:15 AM
Coal as a power source is crazy dangerous in the first place. Kills a lot of people.
Coal mining pays well. So it's all good.
Margaret Thatcher disagrees.
Quote from: Valmy on January 13, 2014, 09:29:02 AM
Margaret Thatcher disagrees.
Well she ain't here now, is she?
That spill is headed down the Ohio River toward me now. Fortunately, my water comes out of the Salt River (strangely, it's not salty at all though). :cool:
Quote from: Ed Anger on January 13, 2014, 09:20:55 AM
Quote from: derspiess on January 13, 2014, 09:19:16 AM
Quote from: The Brain on January 11, 2014, 03:18:15 AM
Coal as a power source is crazy dangerous in the first place. Kills a lot of people.
Coal mining pays well. So it's all good.
Dying early sucks though.
Depends on who's doing the dying. I got a list.
Quote from: dps on January 13, 2014, 05:26:00 PM
Depends on who's doing the dying. I got a list.
Dude, this is languish. We all have lists.
Cincinnati has closed its intake valves! PANIC
Glad I had an extra glass of water before I left for work.
Delicious river water.
City water here isn't bad.
I took a whizz into the Ohio river years ago.
I'M INSIDE YOU NOW
Ack!
How far upstream?
Quote from: derspiess on January 14, 2014, 10:27:26 AM
How far upstream?
About halfway to WVA. Forgot the name of the place but damn.... It was poor as hell.
Quote from: Ed Anger on January 14, 2014, 10:30:38 AM
Quote from: derspiess on January 14, 2014, 10:27:26 AM
How far upstream?
About halfway to WVA. Forgot the name of the place but damn.... It was poor as hell.
Sounds like Portsmouth.
It might have been Ashland Kentucky. I just can't remember those times that well anymore.
Ayshland's pretty dumpy. But what Ohio River town ain't?
But at least that river didn't catch on fire.
Quote from: Ed Anger on January 14, 2014, 10:52:44 AM
But at least that river didn't catch on fire.
It's too big to fail.
City water here actually tastes good (I think I remember hearing it won some award for that once).
When I was a kid I drank the tap water at my grandmother's house in Philadelphia and actually gagged, it tasted so horrible.
Quote from: Caliga on January 14, 2014, 11:42:06 AM
City water here actually tastes good (I think I remember hearing it won some award for that once).
When I was a kid I drank the tap water at my grandmother's house in Philadelphia and actually gagged, it tasted so horrible.
I think Delaware was the only place I lived where tap water could give me heartburn.
Stockholm water is lovely.
Our water is very good. It also helps that I live just a few blocks below the water shed which is the source of our drinking water.
Quote from: Valmy on January 10, 2014, 09:28:52 AM
Quote from: Phillip V on January 09, 2014, 11:02:09 PM
leaked from a tank at Freedom Industries
Freedom Industries?
We sell freedom!
Lolz, freedom from regulatory enforcement. Yay, America.
Quote from: Viking on January 10, 2014, 07:34:05 PM
Calling it dangerous is a bit over the top. Basically it is soap. Or, at least special industrial bubble soap. Probably not nice to drink, but certainly not arsenic... though it almost certainly contains some fungicide, herbicide and insecticide.
Basically, this is a chemical added to water which is sprayed on piles of coal (and gypsum and other fine grain bulk products) to prevent the coal dust from blowing all over the place (giving everybody cancer). Since water either evaporates, runs off (carrying much of the find dust with it) or freezes in cold termperatures chemicals were added to form a water film over the coal, keeping it moist. This means dust doesn't spread and it keeps the coal from degenerating and/or burning.
It is all round good stuff. It is basically advanced soap.
It's still a chemical, Industry Monkey Boy.
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=US&NR=4915825&KC=&FT=E&locale=en_EP
4-methyl cyclohexane methanol. NO MORE DISHPAN HANDS
So is water.
A stalwart corporate partner of the West Virginia business community
QuoteJanuary 12, 2014
Freedom executive Kennedy had felonies
By David Gutman
www.wvgazette.com
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Freedom Industries, the company responsible for contaminating the water of 300,000 Kanawha Valley residents, was founded by a two-time convicted felon, benefited from the 2009 federal stimulus and at least two of its executives have longstanding ties to the Charleston business community.
Since the chemical spill on Thursday, Freedom Industries executives have entirely avoided media requests, except for a brief news conference Friday night.
On Sunday morning, Charles Ryan Associates, a prominent Charleston public relations firm hired by Freedom, abruptly dropped the chemical distributor as a client.
"I made the decision not to represent them," said Susan Lavenski, who was handling Freedom for Charles Ryan. She would not give any details as to why she would no longer represent the company.
Freedom Industries was founded in 1992 by Gary Southern and Carl Lemley Kennedy II, according to filings with the West Virginia secretary of state. The company's website, however, says it was founded in 1986.
"Our friends and our neighbors, this incident is extremely unfortunate, unanticipated and we are very, very sorry for the disruption to everybody's daily life that this incident has caused," Southern, the company's president, said at the news conference Friday night. "It has been an extremely long day, I'm having trouble talking at the moment. I would appreciate it if we could wrap this thing up."
He has not spoken publicly since.
Kennedy is still listed as "incorporator" with the secretary of state, but a woman who answered the phone at Freedom Industries on Friday said he left the company "years ago."
As recently as 2005, Kennedy owned 5 percent of Freedom Industries, according to a bankruptcy filing. That stake was valued at $675,000, according to Kennedy's filing, meaning that in 2005 Freedom Industries was valued at $13.5 million.
That valuation has almost certainly increased over the past eight years. In 2008, the company employed 45 people, sold 10 million gallons of material and earned $26 million, according to newspaper records.
Within the last two weeks, on Dec. 31, 2013, Freedom merged with three other companies, Etowah River Terminal, Poca Blending and Crete Technologies.
The companies were already interrelated. Freedom markets and distributes chemicals that are mixed by Poca Blending in Nitro. Etowah River Terminal is the storage facility on the Elk which leaked the chemical. It has about a dozen tanks, each of which can hold tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals. It was formerly a Pennzoil facility.
Kennedy told the court in 2006 that he also owned portions of Poca Blending, Etowah River Terminal, New River Chemical Co., New River Leasing, New River Air, The Sands Land Co., Dogtech Land Co., Protech Land Co., and all of Southway Inc.
Kennedy filed for bankruptcy in 2005 after he was charged with tax evasion and willful failure to pay employees' withholdings to the government. He pleaded guilty to both charges in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia.
He admitted that between 2000 and 2003, while he was the accountant for Freedom Industries, Poca Blending and New River Chemical Co., he withheld more than $1 million from employee paychecks that he never passed on to the federal government, according to court filings. He also owed more than $200,000 in state taxes.
"Carl L. Kennedy II took steps to conceal a large portion of his income from the Internal Revenue Service by, among other things, using his position as an accountant to ensure a W2 form was not filed in his name," the court document reads, "using corporate funds for his personal benefit and writing corporate checks to cash for his personal enrichment."
He was sentenced to more than three years in prison, but had his sentence cut almost in half after he cooperated with authorities by making controlled cocaine buys and wearing a wire in conversations with a former business associate.
It was not Kennedy's first brush with the law.
In 1987 Kennedy pleaded guilty to selling between 10 and 12 ounces of cocaine in connection with a scandal that toppled then-Charleston Mayor Mike Roark.
Kennedy has, in the past, owned extensive property in downtown Charleston, including the building currently housing Bar 101 on Capitol Street and the building at 8 Capitol St.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones said he has known Kennedy since the '80s and called him an "edgy guy."
"He was just kind of a character and he's gotten in trouble," Jones said. "I liked him, but if he got in trouble twice on felony charges then he's a slow learner." :lol:
Kennedy has been a longtime business associate of Dennis P. Farrell.
Farrell is listed as the president of Freedom Industries on the company's website, but was called only an "executive" by a woman who answered the phone at the company.
The two met in college, at West Virginia Institute of Technology in Montgomery, and went on to own at least two restaurants together.
They co-owned The Bank Bar and Grill, in Montgomery, and Tomahawks, in Jefferson.
In 2009 Freedom Industries was at risk of either going out of business or leaving its location on the Elk River, Farrell told the Charleston Daily Mail.
Sand, silt and mud had built up in the river, making it difficult for barges to travel the 2.5 miles from the company's river terminal to the Elk's confluence with the Kanawha.
But the river was dredged in 2009 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, thanks to $400,000 from the federal stimulus.
"It could've put us out of business," Farrell told the Daily Mail about the undredged river. "At some point we wouldn't have been economically fit to run the facility. That's our claim to fame: the barges."
In 2008, Freedom Industries secured a contract to distribute a line of products called Talon that are used as a binder in coal processing, according to a news release issued at the time. Freedom distributed Talon to eight states, including West Virginia.
"We are excited to offer our customers inventive products like Talon that push past the status quo in coal recovery to bring profit and productivity benefits to mining preparation plants," Joshua Herzing, a Freedom executive, said in the press release.
Talon is made by Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC. Georgia-Pacific is owned by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
The Koch brothers have, through a conservative group called Americans for Prosperity, spent millions of dollars campaigning against a wide array of environmental regulations.
On Saturday, Americans for Prosperity set up a water distribution site at Columbia Gas in Charleston.
Since Friday night's news conference, the only public statement from anyone connected with Freedom came from Kathy Stover-Kennedy, Farrell's fiancé.
On her personal Facebook page, Stover-Kennedy asked for empathy for Freedom executives, and said that she had showered and brushed her teeth with the contaminated water and she was "just fine."
Stover-Kennedy is Carl Kennedy's ex-wife, according to Gazette archives and a business associate of Kennedy's who asked not to be named.
Also associated with Freedom Industries, is J. Clifford Forrest, who is listed as "manager" of Etowah River Terminal and Poca Blending on the merger document submitted to the secretary of state.
Forrest is the president of Rosebud Mining, a Pennsylvania-based coal company.
In late 2010, Rosebud was sued by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration because they were allegedly providing advanced notice to miners of coming inspections, violating the Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.
Forrest also owns The Lodge at Glendorn, a luxury resort in northern Pennsylvania.
Southern, Kennedy, Farrell and Forrest did not return requests for comment.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on January 14, 2014, 07:03:18 PM
So is water.
It's not listed on the NASDAQ, so what the fuck do you care.