Rawstory.com by Travis Gettys - 10 January 2014
Residents of nine West Virginia counties have been warned not to drink or even touch tap water after a chemical spill.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency Thursday in Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties after the West Virginia American Water Company announced that its water supply had become contaminated.
WSAZ-TV reported that 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, which is used in the froth flotation process of coal washing and preparation, had spilled just upstream from the intake of the Kanawha Valley water treatment plant in Charleston — the largest in West Virginia.
