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In January 2014 a state of emergency for nine counties was declared after a chemical spill into the Elk River in Charleston, disrupting the water supply for 300,000 West Virginia residents. The spill involved thousands of gallons of 4-methyl-cyclohexane-methanol, or MCHM, used for processing "clean coal."
The spill originated at Freedom Industries, a Charleston company that produces specialty chemicals for the mining, steel and cement industries. The chemical was leaking out of a secondary storage tank and a foul odor was reported by residents, prompting a state investigation and questions into how about environmental regulations in the plant escaped state monitoring : environmental inspectors had not visited the Freedom Industries facility since 1991, and regulationsunder West Virginia law, chemicals storage facilities are not subject to inspections. The plant also had no groundwater protection plan in place.
At the time of the accident, the CDC did not have a standard for how much of the chemical in water is safe to drink, so the agency relied on the little research that had been done on the chemical — an animal study that established the lethal dose for rats.<ref>Ann Moore, "West Virginia chemical spill triggers tap water ban," Reuters, Jan 10, 2014.</ref>