Chemical spillsWest Virginia chemical spill degrades air, water quality
In the more than two months since the 9 January chemical spill into West Virginia’s Elk River, new findings reveal the nature of the chemicals that were released into the water and then into the air in residents’ houses. The lack of data motivated researchers to take on essential odor-related research that went beyond their National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research grant to better understand the properties of the chemical mixture called crude 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the major component in the crude mix of the spilled chemicals into the Elk River
In the more than two months since the 9 January chemical spill into West Virginia’s Elk River, new findings reveal the nature of the chemicals that were released into the water and then into the air in residents’ houses.
“Based on our increasing understanding of the chemicals involved in the water crisis, the complexities and implications of the spill keep growing,” said Andrea Dietrich, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. “People are still afraid to drink the water; odors persist in schools, residences, and businesses; data are still lacking for the properties of the mixture of chemicals in the crude MCHM that spilled.”
A Virginia Tech release reports that the lack of data motivated Dietrich and her research team to take on essential odor-related research that went beyond their National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research grant to better understand the properties of the chemical mixture called crude 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, the major component in the crude mix of the spilled chemicals into the Elk River [see “NSF rapid response research grants to fund study of West Virginia chemical spill,” HSNW, 10 February 2014; and “Determining long-term effects of West Virginia chemical spill,” HSNW, 11 March 2014]. It is used in the separation and cleaning of coal products.
Rapid Response grants are the agency’s funding mechanism when a severe urgency exists in terms of the availability of data.
When Dietrich’s team first started, their goal was to conduct detailed scientific investigations to determine the long-term fate of the chemicals in the drinking water distribution system and in the environment. The spill had occurred upstream from the West Virginia America Water intake, treatment, and distribution center. Some 300,000 residents were affected, losing their access to potable water. The continued plight of West Virginia living day-to-day with the contaminant’s licorice odor resulted in Dietrich’s team unraveling the odor threshold problem.
As the ban was lifted on drinking water use, Virginia Tech researchers gathered their data and they realized that West Virginians were still complaining of an odor in their homes and in the environment.
“Like for many contaminants in water, chemicals leave the water and enter the breathing air, so that inhalation becomes a route for human exposure as well as drinking the water,” stated Daniel Gallagher, also a faculty member in Virginia Tech’s Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of the research team.
