Charleston, West Virginia

Pouring the water from the tap, tiny little bubbles swirl and are slow to dissipate. The water is soft and uncomfortably warm. It has a faint pond-like flavor almost like sweet seaweed, but lacks a mineral body. It seems to taste like the term “surface water.” It is plain–nothing is delicious about it. 

The capital city of West Virginia sits on the intersection of the Kanawha and Elk Rivers. Since 1915, the city has drawn its drinking water from the Elk River, but, crossing over it on a bridge today, it does not look appetizing. It is a deep green, lazy river. Not too long ago, this water brought 122 vomiting people to the hospital in 1 day. But it wasn’t the river’s fault. 

In 2014, Freedom Industries spilled 4-methylcyclohexylmethanol, a compound used as part of West Virginia’s main industry–coal. Chemicals like these are a real mouthful, but it’s far worse when you get a literal mouthful of them.10,000 gallons of the stuff leaked from a storage facility upriver of Charleston’s municipal water intake. While the system has filters, they became saturated with the toxins and eventually the water became undrinkable. 

The city had to shut down and drinking water was no longer available. A state of emergency was declared where FEMA provided 3 million liters of water to alleviate the crisis. This spill is considered one of the worst contaminations of drinking water in US history. 

While the water complies with federal standards today, there is widespread distrust due to the 2014 spill.