Water-Borne Disaster: Could What Happened In West Virginia Happen To You?

On January 9, 2014 over a quarter of a million people in West Virginia woke to a warning that their tap water was unsafe for showering, for making coffee, or for brushing teeth, and that there was no estimate of when it would be safe again.

Schools were closed, restaurants were shut down, and hotels quickly locked their doors. Store shelves were quickly stripped of bottled water. Traffic jams built up around National Guard distribution centers offering families a ration of 4 gallons (16 liters) of water.

The culprit, West Virginians quickly learned, was the spill of 10,000 gallons (40,000 liters) of a chemical used to wash coal, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, also identified by its unique identifying “CAS number" 34885-03-5. This chemical has been used by the coal industry for decades, so one might think that the coal industry or the makers of the chemical would have indepth information on how to treat toxic exposure to it. One might be wrong.

It turns out that prior to January 2014 there had been just one study of the toxicity of MCHM. Scientists had fed the chemical to lab rats to determine the dosage at which 50% of the lab rats died. This number is used to set the LD50, the lethal dose of the drug--but that process is not exactly straightforward, either.

The experiments had shown that half the rodents had died when they were given "825 milligrams for every kilogram of body weight." The experimenters then guessed that humans might be 10 times more sensitive to the chemical than lab rats, so they redefined the lethal dose at 82.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Then, without any further experiments at all, the researchers took a wild guess and decided that 1/10 of the 1/10 of the lethal dose for rats would be a safe dose for humans, and rounded that figure up to 1 mg per kilogram of body weight, which they then equated to 1 part in a million parts of water, since human beings are mostly water.

See Also: What Plain Old Water Can Do For Your Health

None of this makes good sense, but 1 part in a million was set as the safe level for MCHM in drinking water. The chemical had never been tested in humans, and the one study that involved lab rats had only found out levels that are probably lethal, and "less, a lot less" had become the standard for safety. But West Virginians who had nausea, vomiting, and skin rashes knew that whatever level of the chemical had found its way into their drinking water was not safe.

The West Virginia water crisis did not last forever. After three days, levels of MCHM in Elk River water used for much of West Virginia's drinking water supply had fallen to the magical 1 part in a million level, and the river water was declared safe. By January 13, 2014, water that had been processed the week before had been flushed from the pipes. But people continued to get sick, although in smaller numbers, and confidence in the water supply will take a long time to return.

What Do You Need To Do Before A Water Crisis?

The chemical spill in West Virginia was anything but unique. Just the year before the coal chemical spill, an oil spill at the Magnolia Oil Refinery near Magnolia, Arkansas dumped 15,000 barrels (7,000 tons) of crude oil into Little Corney Creek, resulting in an oil slick 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. In 1988, a dump truck driver unloaded twenty tons of aluminum sulfate into the wrong tank at a water purification center in Camelford, England, causing hundreds of people to suffer diarrhea, cramps, and stomach ulcers, taking 3 weeks to get out of the water system. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio became so contaminated it actually caught fire. 

What do you need to do just in case your own water becomes contaminated? Here are some vital suggestions.

• Always have enough water for each member of your household to last three days. It's best to have 1 gallon (4 liters) for drinking and 1 gallon (4 liters) for cooking, washing, and at least occasionally flushing the toilet. It is best to store water in glass containers. If you use plastic containers, make sure they are stored in a cool place and never add anything acidic, such as vinegar or lemon juice, to the water while it is being stored. Acidic compounds can leach chemicals out of the plastic.
• Keep canned and bottled drinks, juice, and beer. They are made with purified water.
• Know that you usually can't boil chemical contamination away. A "boil water" notice is typically issued when pipes break and there is a chance that the water supply has become contaminated by ground water or sewage. Boiling water for at least 3 minutes gets rid of disease-causing microorganisms, but it won't get rid of most chemicals. 
• When the water that comes from the faucet is contaminated, find another water source that is not contaminated and treat it, as you would when you were on a hike through the wilderness.

Even if you don't go hiking and backpacking, camp equipment for water purification can come in handy in a water contamination emergency. A filter will capture nasty bacteria and parasites like Giardia, and if the filter is treated with iodine, it will remove viruses, too. Water filters make water more appealing by removing particulate matter.

Chemical tablets such as Potable Aqua are faster and less expensive, but they affect the taste of the water, and they can go bad during storage. It is necessary to replace your water treatment supplies every six months to keep them fresh. Polar Pure lasts longer on the shelf but is more complicated to use.

See Also: Tap Water vs. Bottled Water: Which Is Better?

Filters, chemical tablets, and boiling, however, can enable you to use an alternative water supply when your municipality's water supply is not available. They only work for water you find in places that are not contaminated with the chemical, but they can be exactly what you need to keep your family hydrated and healthy during a water contamination emergency.