I don't know if this aspect of the foulness of Freedom Industries has been discussed yet, but just how far downstream is the shit of Freedom Industries sailing?
It appears that the foulness may be dumped into the Ohio River, which ultimately leads to the Mississippi River which ultimately empties into the Gulf of Mexico, thence to go to pollute the rest of the world.
What is the "safe" level of nontoxic dilution?
It seems to me that the half-assed politicians of West Virginia have a lot of 'splainin' to do to the rest of us.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — When state inspectors showed up unannounced at Freedom Industriesto investigate a licorice odor wafting across West Virginia's capital city, company executive Dennis Farrell seemed to brush off any cause for concern.
But inspectors quickly found what was already contaminating the water for some 300,000 people: a chemical oozing from an above-ground tank and escaping through an old, cracked containment wall. A bag of absorbent material had been placed nearby and weighed down with a cinder block in a failed attempt to stop the flow.
"When they approached the tank, (Farrell) said they just discovered a leak," Jesse Adkins, the inspectors' supervisor, said.
The encounter between state officials and Freedom Industries provides a window into the little-known and lightly regulated firm whose spill of a coal-cleaning chemical contaminated the drinking water for West Virginia's capital city. The consequences from the spill — government investigations and lawsuits — mark the biggest crisis that Freedom Industries has faced in its nearly 22-year history since one of its founders went to prison on tax charges. The U.S. attorney has pledged to determine who is responsible, and numerous businesses have sued because they were forced to close and lost money until the water was safe again.
Twenty-two years of lawlessness in West Virginia. Thanks a lot, assholes!
And, what is the lovely multi-syllabic substance leaching into our drinking and bathing water?
Freedom Industries has been in hunker-down mode since Friday night, when company co-founder Gary Southern gave a brief press conference, dodging questions about the company's monitoring and preventive measures in the 7,500-gallon spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM), a coal-cleaning agent that can cause skin irritation, vomiting and diarrhea.
4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM)
Seems to me that that word should be tattooed across the forehead of every politician and corporate official involved with this little toxic load of shit.
Or maybe, just the little four-letter word I like to use.