Unsurprising to anyone familiar with West Virginia politics, Gov. Tomblin (D-WV) was quick to absolve the coal industry of culpability for the current disaster, blaming it on the chemical industry—and a particularly bad actor at that. But any attempt to decouple the coal industry from this disaster fails the laugh test, given that the spilled chemical was not only used by mining companies to wash coal, but that it had already been oozing into West Virginians’ water supply long before last Thursday through underground injections of coal slurry near communities such as Prenter. What’s more, as the Times and other observers make clear, the lackadaisical attitude of state regulators toward inspections is itself a result of the coal industry’s longstanding and overwhelming influence over state government at all levels. But would a better system of permitting and inspecting chemical facilities have prevented this disaster from occurring? Would it prevent a different type of accident, say if an out-of-control barge or tractor-trailer runs into a chemical storage tank? What about intentional sabotage or, God forbid, a terrorist attack? ecowatch/2014/01/17/dangers-of-water-privatization-in-wv-chemical-spill/
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 19:26:57 +0000
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