The planned demolition of a chemical-storage facility at the site of a January spill that tainted West Virginia’s water supply recently faced an unexpected setback — heavy rain, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The chief restructuring officer of Freedom Industries Inc., the now-bankrupt company that owns the site of the spill, said in a Tuesday bankruptcy filing that potentially chemical-laced water from the Etowah River Terminal facility flowed into the nearby Elk River on two consecutive days last week. Mark Welch, Freedom’s chief restructuring officer, blamed the improper water discharge on “the combination of heavy rainfall and the failure of those responsible for the site to follow established protocols.” Those failures include not having any employees on the scene at the time of last Thursday’s downpour and pumps that didn’t activate when they were supposed to. Despite taking action Friday morning, more water overflowed into the river during another storm that evening, Welch said. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued notices of violation for the seepage, Mr. Welch said. The leaked water is still being tested by the department to see if it contained unhealthy traces of chemical compounds.
