Erin Brockovich on West Virginia water pollution

This video from the USA says about itself:

Erin Brockovich: After Chemical Spill, West Virginians Organizing “Stronger Than I’ve Ever Seen”

14 Jan 2014

http://www.democracynow.org – West Virginia has begun partially lifting its ban on tap water five days after a chemical spill in the Elk River. More than 300,000 residents have been unable to use their water for drinking, cooking or bathing since Thursday, when the company Freedom Industries leaked up to 7,500 gallons of 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (Crude MCHM), an agent used in coal extraction, into the water supply. Scores of schools and businesses have been closed, including in the state capital, Charleston.

The ban has been lifted in four zones so far, but is still in effect for a vast majority of residents. Dozens of people have been hospitalized since the spill, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, rashes and reddened skin.

We get reaction from Erin Brockovich, the renowned environmentalist, consumer advocate and legal researcher. While a single mother of three working as a legal assistant, she helped win the biggest class-action lawsuit in American history, holding the California power company Pacific Gas & Electric Company for polluting a city’s water supply. Her story was told in the Oscar-winning film “Erin Brockovich.” Today, Brockovich and her team are investigating the spill in West Virginia. On Monday evening, she held a town hall meeting in Charleston to discuss the spill with local residents. “They’re banding together stronger than I’ve ever seen before,” Brockovich says of West Virginians self-organizing in the spill’s aftermath.

A transcript of this video is here.

West Virginia Spill Exposes Disturbing Lack Of Data About Hazardous Chemicals: here.

While water service is slowly being restored to residents in nine West Virginia counties following last Thursday’s chemical spill outside the capitol city of Charleston, major hardships remain for the more than 300,000 people who have been affected: here.

On Friday, Freedom Industries—the company responsible for the chemical leak, which poisoned the water of 300,000 West Virginians—filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing is a blatant attempt by the company to escape legal and financial responsibility for the chemical spill, as it will put on hold the some 25 lawsuits already filed against the company since the leak was discovered on January 9: here.

Problems remain with the water in nine West Virginia counties despite the lifting of the last of the water bans on Saturday. Some 300,000 West Virginians–representing more than 16 percent of the state’s population–were told their tap water was not safe for anything but flushing toilets following a chemical leak into the Elk River in Charleston that made its way in to the main water intake for area residents: here.

West Virginia Governor on whether to drink the water: ‘It’s your decision… I’m not a scientist’: here.

“What we know scares us, and we know there’s a lot more we don’t know.” – scientist on West Virginia water: here.

Freedom Industries—the company responsible for the January 9 chemical spill just outside Charleston, West Virginia—has told state regulators that the leak also contained polyglycol ethers, or PPH: here.

More than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry—a toxic liquid mixture of cleaning chemicals and coal refuse—contaminated about six miles of a stream in Kanawha County, West Virginia on Tuesday. Kanawha County is home to the state’s capital, Charleston, and was the epicenter for last month’s chemical spill which poisoned the water supply for 300,000 residents in nine counties. (See: Chemical spill leaves 300,000 without water in West Virginia): here.