Court filings say water company built intake upstream from FreedomInd in ’60s, ’70s; not utilized
Charleston Gazette
Court filings say water company built intake near Coonskin in ’60s, ’70s
by Ken Ward Jr., Staff writer
More than four decades ago, West Virginia American Water built much of the piping needed for a second drinking water intake upstream from an Elk River industrial site that later became Freedom Industries, according to confidential state records described in new federal court filings.
West Virginia American apparently never connected or used that piping, the records show, instead quietly switching to a new intake located at the site of its Kanawha Valley regional treatment and distribution plant when that facility was completed just downstream from Freedom, site of the January 2014 chemical leak that contaminated the company’s water supply.
Details of the second intake and its associated piping are described in a late-Monday court filing by lawyers for area residents who are suing the water company, alleging that West Virginia American was not properly prepared for and did not adequately respond to the January 2014 leak of Crude MCHM and other chemicals into the drinking water supply that serves hundreds of thousands of people in Charleston and surrounding communities.
The court filing is based on dozens of documents the lawyers obtained from the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health about a drinking water intake located near Coonskin Park, and about construction in the late 1960s and early 1970s of West Virginia American’s new regional drinking water plant.
Previously, Jackson Kelly law firm attorneys representing West Virginia American had filed some of the state agency’s documents with U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver, saying those records supported the water company’s position.
However, the new court filings, by Charleston attorneys Kevin Thompson and Alex McLaughlin and Phoenix lawyer Van Bunch, allege that company attorneys did not provide the judge with the whole story.
Laura Jordan, a spokeswoman for the water company, said Monday night that the company disputes “the characterization by the plaintiffs’ attorneys of the documents they discuss.” Jordan said West Virginia American would file a response, to explain its position to the court.
While the dispute is partly long-ago history, the details of it play a major role in explaining why West Virginia American had no alternative water supply to turn to when Freedom’s chemicals made it to the water intake, located 1.5 miles downstream from Freedom’s leaking storage tank. And in the context of lawsuits over West Virginia America’s role in the water crisis that followed the leak, lawyers for residents hope the records help them prove the company ignored options that could have prevented or minimized the incident’s effect on residents.
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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150519/GZ01/150519241/1453
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