It's going to feel wonderful.

but the water is still tainted. We still smell it. They had to lift it because our economy would tank otherwise. We have been tainted and business will go on as usual.

That's according to the WV American Water Company, anyway.

http://media.graytvinc.com/documents/How+to+Flush+Your+Plumbing+System.pdf

I've talked to various chemists and some say it's just an alcohol and not dangerous in these quantities. Others have told me it's oil based and will be in our lines/tanks for a long time. I am certainly not of the freak out variety, and I plan on using it (minus drinking it), but it just seems they are rushed to get things back in order so havoc doesn't result. You think any new set of regulations/bills will take place? I don't.

This crisis was set up when county commissions sold their water systems to private investors. Then treatment plants were closed in outlying areas in favor of a single plant with a single source at the Elk River in West Virginia's Chemical Valley. That's how 300,000 people came to be without water in an area that has plentiful supplies that are more reliable and of better quality than the one chosen by West Virginia American Water.

Consider the Putnam County and Boone/Raliegh Public Service Districts, which are community owned and operated. There were no problems in either of their areas and that's the way it would have been everywhere except Kanawha County if our water systems hadn't been privatized.

are they regulated as a public utility?

I live in PA and we have the equivalent here, Pennsylvania American Water, and they're regulated as a Public Utility. Inspections and water quality standards are pretty strictly enforced here. I would like to think that monitoring at the pumping station would have automatically shut down intake when this occurred.

As an aside, my wife's family has a long history in Barbour County. I've been there several times. It's as beautiful as the day's long, but the limits that the geography has and the ability to change industries from coal/lumber to any other industry is very limited. Once you get outside the river beds where most of the rails are, the ability to transport goods is pretty difficult. That's (in my opinion anyway) a big reason why coal and lumber is still the major industries there. That's not to say the whole region is not changing. Take a look at the I-79 corrider around Clarksburg and the development there and you can see that not all of West Virginia is what is depicted and thought of by many.

But I don't think the PSC has gotten involved in architectural issues such as the unnecessary lack of source diversity that I described.

and unfortunately WVAC decided that a single source pumping station was more cost effective than smaller, regional stations.

My concern seems to be more of a lack of monitoring at the Elk River station, if MCHM was a monitored contaniment.

And to be honest I wonder if there was any monitoring at all for any contaminant.

I cross posted it in Good Reads. It's titled, [iWho Owns West Virginia's Water? A Cautionary Tale]. It's best analysis about the crisis that I've seen so far.

was pretty interesting.

Will reread it before commenting, but from first glance, it reads exactly your position.

Thanks,