http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/west-virginia-contaminated-water/
The water that some 300,000 people in West Virginia usually depend on to slake their thirst, wash their bodies and brush their teeth is now good for only one thing -- flushing their toilets, authorities told them Friday.
"We don't know that the water is not safe, but I can't say it is safe," Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water Co., told reporters about the water his company provides to customers in central and southwestern West Virginia.
That's the way things have been since Thursday night, when residents of Kanawha County reported a foul odor -- similar to licorice -- in the air. By Friday afternoon, it was unclear when the situation would revert to normal. "We have no timeline," McIntyre said.
Investigators from the Kanawha County Fire Department and the state Department of Environmental Protection quickly found the source -- a leak from a 48,000-gallon storage tank along the Elk River, which serves as the source of water for the 1,500 miles of pipeline that carry water to customers in the region.
The chemical had overflowed a containment area around the tank and then migrated over land and through the soil into the river.
"I do not believe it is continuing to flow," McIntyre said.
But finding the source didn't solve the problem. By 4 p.m. Thursday, the odor was coming from the water that had already been treated, meaning it was contaminated, McIntyre said. Within two hours, officials issued the stop-use warning, a move that McIntyre described as unprecedented.