Water Woes

We’ve got another situation here in good ole West Virginia.  No water in nine counties.  It started out being only four counties, and then it was five, and now it’s nine.

There seems to have been some chemical seepage from a storage tank near the rivers where our water is processed.  It was discovered sometime late yesterday morning.  Some of it seems to have seeped into parts of both rivers and has therefore contaminated our drinking water.

If you believe what the local government tells us, the water may not be safe to drink, but since they don’t know for sure, we shouldn’t use it.

If you believe what the Water Company tells us, the water might be safe, but since they’re not sure, we shouldn’t use it.

We have been given two options with the tap water that comes into our homes:  flush the toilet and fight a fire.  We have been instructed to not bathe, launder, drink, wash, or in any way, shape or fashion, touch the water or anything that it might have touched.

Which means we shouldn’t have our hands down inside the toilet bowl.

Some other news report said that the chemical was flammable.  Another said it was not.

We made the CNN and New York Times editions today, which is only cool in that “Hey look!  We’re National!” sort of way.  But the rest of the country still thinks we’re part of Virginia, so it’s a neighborly pride sort of thing.  We’re glad Virginia gets recognized.

The people who make and/or store the chemical that leaked are getting their butts sued off.  In the meantime, restaurants are closed and people who make an hourly wage in the food industry are off work for a few days until this gets cleaned up.  I’ll bet the business owners will recoup a fortune at the expense of the chemical store-ers, but I doubt the people who lost their hourly wages will get anything.  It’s all politics.

And there’s no school, either.

I had heard about the water troubles, but when I got home from work yesterday, the first thing I did was wash a pan of dishes.  My hands turned red and chaffed, but since we are rapidly exchanging negative degree weather for mid fifties, I figured they were just in need of some lotion.  The redness didn’t last long.

This morning, I came down to start getting ready for work.  Husband was watching the live coverage of the cleanup and the toxicity reports that were rolling in.  He said, “Don’t give the dog any water.”

We watched the news a couple more minutes and then I said, “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

Husband hung his head in disappointment.

I’ve done a little research on this chemical, and in its raw form it’s an irritant.  It’s only lethal in large doses and for prolonged periods.  I wouldn’t want to take a steam bath in the stuff in a 50/50 mix, that’s for sure.   And I definitely want this cleaned up and I probably won’t drink it.

But one part per million and severely diluted?

Let the governor not bathe to set that example.  I’ve known the company of humans that have irritated me more.