Friday, January 10, 2014

Lots of Information on WV Chem Spill

As a chemical industry professional I always hate to hear about a spill, particularly one that has off-site consequences; they always make the industry look bad. One positive note about this spill is that the local, State and federal government agencies are working hard at making information available to folks in the area. Of course, this area has lots of experience with this type of thing.

The affected water company has a nice explanation of what is going-on on their web site. A local TV station has a nice piece with a water researcher. FEMA has an interesting page on their site for links for trusted TWITTER® sites commenting on the situation. Lots of TWITTER stuff, FEMA is using #WVwater hashtag.

The one dark spot in this information illumination is the source of the spill, Freedom Industries. I have seen no reports quoting from them and there is nothing on their web page about the spill. Now I am sure that a large part of their silence is due to worries about liability for the costs associated with the spill. But, it would have been nice to see a brief statement from them acknowledging that there had been a spill, an estimate about how much had been spilled and a brief statement about the hazards associated with the chemical.


Please note that there was a comment posted to my earlier blog post from an angry local resident. I understand the point of view very well and I posted a brief response.

No comments:

 
/* Use this with templates/template-twocol.html */