Freedom Industries, West Virginia chemical spill company was exempt from EPA inspections.

[JaneyVee]

More than 300,000 people in 9 counties near Charleston, W.Va., remain without safe tap water four days after a chemical spill from Freedom Industries overflowed into the Elk River. The company responsible for spilling approximately 7,500 gallons of toxic 4-methylcyclohexene methanol Thursday, was not subject to any permits or inspections.

The New York Times reported, “According to Department of Environmental Protection officials, Freedom Industries, which owns the chemical tank that ruptured, is exempt from Department of Environmental Protection inspections and permitting since it stores chemicals, and does not produce them.”

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has since vowed to “look into tighter regulation of chemical storage facilities.” But looking into additional regulations is not the same as actually implementing them.

The current political climate has been dominated by Republicans pushing to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency and rollbacks on government regulations for businesses.

Additionally, the chemical spilled was used to wash coal before it’s sent to market and the coal industry has a powerful deregulation lobby.

The rest: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/16321999-west-virginia-chemical-spill-company-was-exempt-from-epa-inspections

[dgibby]

1. OMG! Words fail.

Anobody been able to connect these bastards to the Kochs yet?

On edit: Nevermind. I found the answer and it is "Yes", surprise, surprise, surprise.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/11/1268990/-Freedom-Industries-Has-Ties-to-Koch-Brothers#

[underpants]

6. I have three words

What
The
F¥<K

[questionseverything]

7. yep

niyad (28,384 posts)
62. not sure of affiliation, but they are suppliers for georgia-pacific


Freedom Industries

Freedom Industries released crude 4-Methylcyclohexanemethanol (MCHM) into the Elk River. On December 31, 2013, Freedom Industries which had been founded in 1992 by Gary Southern, and Carl L. Kennedy II merged with three other companies, Etowah River Terminal, Poca Blending, and Crete Technologies. Southern remains as president of the newly formed company. The company distributes chemicals used in coal mining and is a distributor for Georgia-Pacific.

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Elk_River_chemical_spill
"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." �Susan B. Anthony, Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876
Reply to this post
Back to top Alert abuse Link here Permalink
Response to niyad (Reply #62)Sun Jan 12, 2014, 10:33 AM
questionseverything (933 posts)
76. georgia-pacific is the koch brothers

[SamKnause]

9. Reply

Yes.

Search latest threads, general discussions for the title; WV: Freedoms Industries has ties to Koch Brothers.

I would post the link, but I do not know how.

Hope you can find it.

[BodieTown]

24. A Couple of Us Posted the Connection HERE Yesterday Morning

Post

I still do not see corporate media making an issue of it. That's because the corporate media regularly goes down on the Kochs, even when they poison humans, animals, and the environment.

Money. Trumps. Life.

[historylovr]

2. K & R

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. God damn these mother-fucking SOB's to hell.

[Vincardog]

4. In a related note; on the only mention of this subject on Corporate TV the toxic 4-methylcyclohexene

was described as safe but producing mild skin irritation.
Sorry no link only my memory.

[dgibby]

8. Several people have been hospitalized.

I'm guessing it's not because of mild skin irritation. GRRR!

[Earth_First]

5. Cheney's top-secret Energy Task Force fallout?

Clean Water Protection Act loophole/exemption...?

[dgibby]

12. More likely Koch Brothers.

Freedom Industries is a subsidary of Georgia-Pacific, a Koch company. You have to know they're laughing all the way to the bank. No doubt Dixie paper plates (another Koch product) are flying off the shelves in WV now that people can't wash their dishes.

List of Koch Brothers' Industries products at link.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/boycott-and-defeat-koch-industries/koch-industriesgeorgia-pacific-products-to-avoid-list-of-alternatives-attached/153902421342335

[ronnie624]

10. "since it stores chemicals, and does not produce them."

What a glaring failure of logic.

[dgibby]

14. Not a failure if

your "logic" is to deregulate corporations. More like a resounding success if you're an elected representative who's been bought and paid for by the Kochs and their ilk. I'm sure they've been richly rewarded for this clever little loophole.

[ronnie624]

18. The Kochs are some of the most foul people ever.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024320014

[KoKo]

11. Thanks for this post. It's "De-Regulation Gone Wild"

and the aftereffects are now beginning to show up. It's gone on "under the table" with a weak press not reporting and MSM doing fluff and celebrity porn.

Let's hope attention can be kept on this because this ALEC and Koch Brothers type of influence on our states has been hidden from sight...but, look at how much we are beginning to find out.

But people are suffering and it needs to stop.

[Mopar151]

13. You could'nt imagine a spill distribution this bad

Especially since the 4-MCH-methanol will dissolve in water at any ratio (miscible) - not like a petroleum oil that will cling together and rise to be skimmed.
Can anyone confirm how this is used? I can guess, but a good share of my chemistry is figured out from the ingredient list of Uncle Dickie's Patent Weasel Piss. I'm wondering if this stuff is mixed with water to form a recirculating solution for washing dirt & coal dust off the coal, rather than a water rinse run off into the creek.????

[pinto]

15. Good points. Just for clarity's sake - the NYT article refers to the W.Va. Department

of Environmental Protection, not the federal EPA. I'm unclear if there's overlapping regulatory responsibility. But the lack of routine inspections by some agency would clearly seem to be a contributing issue. I hope that gets some follow up.

[lpbk2713]

16. There are a lot of similarities to the West, Texas fertilizer plant here.

OSHA hadn't inspected that plant in over 25 years. In both cases the public
and the environment are paying for non-existent governmental review and for
owners and managers who think they can bend the rules to maximize profits.

Added link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-didnt-regulators-prevent-the-texas-fertilizer-explosion

[GeorgeGist]

17. Freedumb works.

[Frustratedlady]

19. If this is so potent, what about the coal that leaves the cleansing process

and is shipped across the country. We have tons of coal cars that go across the country and cross the Mississippi River. What happens if it rains as the train is delivering? Does the runoff contain this toxic stuff? What about the coal sitting in piles along the rivers (as ours does)?

[dgibby]

21. Coal trains come through my hometown daily.

It's a straight shot from the mines in WV to the CSX coal piers in Newport News, Va. and the tracks follow the James River all the way.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. This country is fucked...

yes, in a few ways things have gotten better. For the most part we are nothing better than a third world natio,

[dgibby]

22. And the hits just keep on coming!

Chemical spill much worse than first reported:

ttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/h12/3151421/fourth-day-water-west-virginia/

[Iliyah]

23. And clean H2O is coming in slowly - WTF!

Where the eff is the governor and mayor huh. This shit is unacceptable. Seems like eff the residents while the CEO was gleefully drinking a cold bottle water. These MFs don't give a shit about the people.

[ancianita]

25. Who, exactly, arranged the exemption? Are there journalists ferreting this out?

Real people are behind these decisions, from the exemption to the spilling, and they need to get caught on paper and be named.

I'll bet a furious disappearing of the decision process and communications is going on right now.

[paleotn]

26. Journalists?.....

For the vast majority of journalists nowadays making a stink means losing access. Losing access means no job. I remember a time when assholes like the Kochs feared journalists as much or more than federal prosecutors. Now the journalists and the feds are on the payroll. Good luck having the truth ever made public.

[House of Roberts]

27. I have more OSHA regulations to follow if I pour alcohol into a spray bottle,

for cleaning parts and fixtures, than this bunch did for storing a toxic chemical.

[brer cat]

28. Well, that is your fault

for not inheriting enough money to buy your very own congress critter to keep those pesky regulators off your tail.

just in case.

[KansDem]

29. West Virginia Politicians "On the Issues" -- "Energy & Oil"

West Virginia on "Energy & Oil"

Summary: anti-EPA; anti-Fed; anti-regulation.