![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tegyriusIf you've been following national (or international) news today, you may have noticed that West Virginia has had a significant chemical spill into the Elk River, which feeds the Kanawha River (which, in turn, feeds the Ohio, which feeds the Mississippi...). About 4,000 gallons of a chemical used to wash coal got loose from a storage tank. Because of local topography, most of the communities in that area are along the Elk and Kanawha - and that includes their water treatment plants. Current reports are showing 300,000 people unable to use tap water for anything but firefighting and flushing the toilets. The chemical in question can't easily be filtered, so it looks like those communities are going to have to flush the treatment plants before they can be used again. In the meantime, the WV National Guard is setting up points of distribution (PODs) - and a hell of a lot of truckloads of water are headed into the area.
Authoritative information is available on West Virginia American Water's site. That page contains a link to a FAQ PDF which includes the current list of PODs.
For those of you who know what I do - yeah, my office has been monitoring it. We're not involved in the response because West Virginia appears to have it under control with state-level resources and hasn't needed to invoke EMAC (though the presidential disaster declaration means federal funds can be allocated for the recovery). Good on WV. If this does expand, it'll likely be a public health issue rather than a HAZMAT issue.
As my three regular readers should know, this is a preparedness reminder. How much bottled water do you have on hand? The minimum recommendation is one gallon per person per day for three days - though, honestly, I'd recommend keeping at least a week available. Personal experience at the House of Cats and Dice has shown that grocery store 1-gallon jugs of spring water will survive in the garage until well past the water's "best by" dates, though the 2.5-gallon jugs tend to fracture or leak under their own weight.
Also think about everything else you use water for - particularly if you have special medical needs. Probably wouldn't hurt to have extra picnicware and paper plates available in case you can't wash the dishes. I'm going to research some options on the personal hygiene side, too, as sponge baths may not always be feasible.
Authoritative information is available on West Virginia American Water's site. That page contains a link to a FAQ PDF which includes the current list of PODs.
For those of you who know what I do - yeah, my office has been monitoring it. We're not involved in the response because West Virginia appears to have it under control with state-level resources and hasn't needed to invoke EMAC (though the presidential disaster declaration means federal funds can be allocated for the recovery). Good on WV. If this does expand, it'll likely be a public health issue rather than a HAZMAT issue.
As my three regular readers should know, this is a preparedness reminder. How much bottled water do you have on hand? The minimum recommendation is one gallon per person per day for three days - though, honestly, I'd recommend keeping at least a week available. Personal experience at the House of Cats and Dice has shown that grocery store 1-gallon jugs of spring water will survive in the garage until well past the water's "best by" dates, though the 2.5-gallon jugs tend to fracture or leak under their own weight.
Also think about everything else you use water for - particularly if you have special medical needs. Probably wouldn't hurt to have extra picnicware and paper plates available in case you can't wash the dishes. I'm going to research some options on the personal hygiene side, too, as sponge baths may not always be feasible.