CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston-based group Advocates for a Safe Water System is urging area residents to attend a public hearing before the state Public Service Commission set for Jan. 17 in connection with the ongoing general investigation into how West Virginia American Water Company handled the Jan. 9, 2014 chemical spill and water emergency on the Elk River in Charleston.
The PSC is scheduled to tour the water company’s Kanawha Valley plant next week, Jan. 4, followed by the public hearing on Jan. 17 and the three-day evidentiary hearing scheduled for the last week of January.
Charleston City Council member Karan Ireland, who is also a member of the advocates group, said residents who still have concerns about the drinking water should attend the public hearing.
“Not a lot has changed yet (from 2014),” Ireland said. “We still don’t have a secondary intake. We have some monitoring but not the kind that would detect MCHM and diesel fuel. There’s a lot that should be interesting about this investigation.”
The state consumer advocate urged the PSC last week to broaden the investigation to include what the water company did to prepare for such an emergency. West Virginia American wants the review to start when it found out about the spill of MCHM. You can’t separate the two, Ireland said.
“There was decisions made years and even decades ago that contributed to the circumstances that led up to the water company’s response of Jan. 9 (2014),” Ireland said.
The Jan. 17 public hearing begins at 6 p.m.