Unravelling the environmental and public health impacts of the West Virginia Chemical Spill

By Siddhartha Roy

It has been two months since over 10,000 gallons of a coal product separation chemical called crude 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (or MCHM) spilled in the Elk river and contaminated drinking water supplies of over 300 000 residents. While the ban on using tap water was lifted pretty soon after MCHM levels dropped below detection limits, consumers are still sensing the licorice-like odor of MCHM in their waters.

NSF gave out three RAPID grants of $50000 each to researchers from University of South Alabama (Dr. Andrew Whelton), West Virginia University (Dr. Jennifer Weidhaas), and Virginia Tech (Dr. Andrea Dietrich) to assess the contamination of the river, treatment plant and surrounding river areas, absorption of MCHM on plastic piping inside consumer homes, and physicochemical behaviors of MCHM itself in the environment respectively. Considering this spill is one of the largest human-caused contamination cases in history, its urgency and seriousness cannot be emphasized enough. NSF has previously awarded RAPID grants during the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill and 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

VT News recently featured this ongoing work at Virginia Tech that Dr. Dietrich, along with her graduate student Amanda Sain and students in her Environmental Analysis graduate-level course are doing to understand MCHM and its behavior in the environment. Very little is known about the toxicity and the fate of the chemical itself whether in the environment or within water systems which makes this a unique problem to tackle.

More importantly, this work directly impacts people’s lives in West Virginia and is an opportunity for students to not only take on real world problems but also contribute positively to society and its ever-changing needs.