On his show Monday, Jon Stewart took on the toxic chemical spill in West Virginia and the unbelievable lack of security, and the even more unbelievable fact that a toxic chemical plant is located upstream of the drinking water. And if you think that is unbelievable, how about this… the toxic plant located upstream of a river used for human consumption was last inspected in 1991!
Now how unbelievable is that!
Why would you build your toxic chemical storage tanks, upstream… and drinking water adjacent? Although, I imagine, because it was in such a vulnerable position, it was highly regulated, this toxic chemical storage facility. As a matter of fact, from what I understand, these toxic chemical tanks have been inspected as recently as… uh…. 1991.
1991! That’s like six Batmans ago!
And the name of the company responsible for this toxic spill? FREEDOM Industries.
While private corporations contaminated the waters of the Elk river in West Virginia, causing hundreds of thousands of people to go without usable water, the government stepped in and brought water to those affected. Now that the ban on using the water is lifting, how soon before they start hating on government again?
Prepare yourself to hear that Government is the problem in 3,2,1…
We all feel for the crisis in West Virginia… well, maybe not the Republicans. In fact, as the water situation in West Virginia got contaminated, House Republicans voted in favor of a bill that will take away the authority of the EPA – the agency responsible for among other things, making sure our water supply is not contaminated.
Although Republicans are hellbent on stopping the EPA, government stepped in and is bringing clean water to the people of West Virginia. And the good people on Twitter have figured it out – that sometimes, government will step in and do what’s right for the people. These people understand what’s going on, and these tweets below clearly shows that.
Wouldn’t blame the residents of #WVA if they formed lynching mob and went after everyone at Freedom Industries & #WestVirginia officials — Dexter Porter (@DexterPorter) January 12, 2014
Does the #GOP philosophy of no regulations, no inspections & screw people Make **ANY** sense?? #WestVirginia Freedom Industries #UniteBlue — NaphiSoc (@NaphiSoc) January 12, 2014
Not just a few miners now, will #WestVirginia voters rethink #Republican anti regulation/environment policies?
Been Picking On #WV all Day, But Truth Is Thanks To Republicans, That Exact same Thing Could Happen In ANY State, Any day! #WVWaterCrisis — Rossssc (@rossssc) January 12, 2014
5,000 gallons? Let’s stop calling it an accident. The real name is negligence. #WVWaterCrisis#wvchemleak
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As hundreds of thousands of residents faced a third day without water because of a chemical spill in a local river, a water company executive said on Saturday that it could be days before it was safe for them to drink tap water again.
Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water, said that officials had set up four labs to test the amount of chemical in the water, but that it might take days to provide enough samples to determine whether the water was safe.
A state official also said that thousands of gallons more of the chemical had leaked into the river than was initially believed.
A team from the Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents, will arrive on Monday to begin looking into the spill, the board said on Saturday.
“Our goal is to find out what happened to allow a leak of such magnitude to occur and to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place to prevent a similar incident from occurring,” said Rafael Moure-Eraso, the chairman of the safety board.
At a news conference here on Saturday evening, officials said tests had begun to show concentrations of the chemical dropping below the one part per million threshold considered safe by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The concentration must remain that low for 24 hours before the water system can be flushed out and the do-not-use ban can be lifted. Officials said they planned to conduct at least 100 additional tests of samples overnight and on Sunday.
The contamination level was dropping because the leak had been shut off, said Mike Dorsey, the chief of homeland security and emergency response at the State Department of Environmental Protection. Some tests showed concentrations above one part per million, which officials attributed to sludge in the river and rain breaking up contaminated ice along it.
Republicans stuck to their old campaign strategy in West Virginia – trying to tie their Democratic opponent to President Obama. They figured it worked in the last two special elections – including Anthony Weiner’s old House seat in New York – and it was sure to work again. However, this time it didn’t work and after a Republican onslaught of millions of dollars into the race in the final weeks, the Democrat – Mr. Earl Ray Tomblin – won the election for governor over his Republican challenger Bill Maloney.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Tomblin, 59, led Maloney by 50 percent to 47 percent, or about 8,500 votes. Three other candidates received low levels of support, including one associated with the Green Party, who won 2 percent.
The court-ordered special election had become as much about the Democratic president as about the candidates on the ballot in the last days before the vote.
Outside groups poured millions of dollars into the contest, recognizing that a third special election loss for a Democrat within just the past three weeks would have been especially damaging as Obama’s 2012 re-election bid gears up.
The Democratic Governors Association spent $2.4 million on the race, and the Republican Governors Association spent $3.4 million, including a spot that began running a few days ago in the expensive Washington, D.C., media market tying Tomblin to Obama’s healthcare law.
Had Maloney won this election, the Republican propaganda machine would be calling it a referendum on Obama. I wonder if the lost would be looked upon as a referendum on Republican’s policies…!
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