The Quality Of Water In West Virginia
Abstract
The quality of water in West Virginia is very inadequate. It is laced with a chemical called C8. This chemical is extremely dangerous and has caused many health issues. C8 found itself in West Virginia’s water because of a company named DuPont. DuPont used this chemical for the distribution of Teflon. During the production process, they would dump the chemicals into the Ohio River. This chemical does not break down, so it has stayed in our water. DuPont knew how dangerous this chemical was, and continued to use it, and dump it into the water. The quality of West Virginia’s water is continually not a concern to those in charge, so our water sources are still being mistreated.
Water Quality in West Virginia
The human body is made up of 50-70 percent water. So, it makes sense that the quality of the water we put into our bodies is up to par. However, this is not always the case. West Virginians especially have been drinking water with high levels of C8 and other harmful chemicals. C8 is an especially dangerous chemical, it is not naturally occurring on earth, but has been dumped in our water. West Virginians especially should be concerned about the quality of their water and should be pushing to make a change. Defining C8. Perfluorooctanoic acid (C8) is the main harmful chemical in our water today. Perfluorooctanoic acid can also be called C8 or PFOA. It is a chemical that was made in a lab, and cannot be found naturally on earth. It is found to cause many diseases, cancers, and other health effects. It can cause testicular and kidney cancer, problems with fetuses and children, thyroid disease, and many other health issues. It is especially concerning because it cannot break down. It will not go away, and it passes from generation to generation. If your mother and/or father has concentrations of C8, then it will be passed to you.
How C8 directly affects West Virginia
This water crisis directly affects West Virginia because of the company DuPont. DuPont was a company in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It produced many products, but its main money maker was Teflon. They used the Teflon to create non-stick products, such as cooking pans. Teflon is made with Perfluorooctanoic acid and several other chemicals. The end product of the products containing Teflon does not have a lot of C8, however, it is the process of making it that is the main problem. The workers who had to be in direct contact with this chemical suffer severe medical issues.
Personal Stories
A woman named Sue Bailey worked at DuPont in production. Unfortunately, she was in direct contact with C8. She had an entry-level job and was inhaling the fumes from the C8 daily. When she got pregnant they removed her from her job for “safety reasons.” When she gave birth to her son, there were issues immediately. The doctors told her that her son would most likely not make it through the night. He could not breathe properly. He was born with one nostril and severe deformities to one of his eyes. He ended up making it through the night, however, he had to have many surgeries. He spent most of his childhood in hospitals getting plastic surgery on his face. When they finally put the pieces together and realized that it was due to C8, they decided to test his blood. He had extremely high concentrations of C8 in his blood. Many other workers began to have severe medical complications. They began to get different kinds of cancer at an alarming rate.
There was a farmer who owned a lot of land in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He sold some of his lands to DuPont. In the contract, DuPont said they would not dump any chemicals onto that property. After a while, the farmer started to notice some changes in his animals. A lot of his cows were dying. Their teeth turned black and were born with deformities. The farmer started to put the pieces together and realized that the company was dumping toxic chemicals on the land. He decided to get a lawyer and to try to figure out what was happening on his farm. His lawyer took on his case in 1999. He found out that DuPont had dumped seven thousand pounds of C8 into his creek. He ended up settling his court case, however, he ended up dying of cancer just a few years later.
How These People Made a Difference
This farmer ended up lighting the fuse of a long battle. Not only were they dumping the chemicals into his creek, but they were also dumping them into the Ohio River. Even after his case was settled his lawyer continued to investigate. This got the community involved because the water companies had to start sending out letters warning people of a chemical in their water. It was not specific so most people didn’t think much of it, but some decided to investigate. People started learning about how bad their water really was. However, DuPont was so powerful that it was going to take a lot more than the town of Parkersburg to take them down. It would take a lot more effort, time, and money to make a huge difference. The farmer’s lawyer, Rob Bilott, decided to take all of the information he found and send it to the EPA. It was not until September of 2002 that they made the study of C8 a priority review. Once the EPA got involved, they started to test people’s blood in the area. They found very high levels of C8. They were planning on finding people who had no C8 in their blood to compare the tests. What they found was extremely disturbing, they could not find blood without C8. 99% of Americans had C8 in their blood.
The Secrets of DuPont
One of the most disturbing things about DuPont is that they knew how dangerous this chemical was, and they continued to use it. They had known since 1961 that C8 was causing damage to lab animals, but they kept using it until 2013. The company who actually produced C8 was called 3M. In 2000, 3M realized the health effects of this chemical. They stopped distributing it, which meant DuPont either had to stop using this chemical or find a new way to obtain it. DuPont decided to start manufacturing C8 themselves. There is proof that members of DuPont were traveling to stores in the nearby towns, and collecting water. They were testing the water for C8. Colealder states, “At one of those stores, the level of C8 measured more than 20 times higher than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today considers safe for drinking water.” This water was tested in 1984, but once again they did not stop using it. DuPont did make some groundbreaking discoveries, such as no-stick pans. However, it came at a huge price. People have lost their lives, and many have lost the quality of their life due to diseases or deformities caused by these chemicals. Being able to cook on a non-stick pan is not worth ruining lives.
Opposition
On the other side of this, one might be thinking of how much better a company could run without restrictions. If people would have left companies like DuPont alone, they could have made some crazy new products. Without DuPont using these chemicals, we may not have discovered Teflon. Teflon was used to make many different objects, such as dental floss, non-stick pans, and many others. If they could use whatever chemicals they wanted, they could create many different innovative products. Some might also say that DuPont was not aware of the severity of this chemical. They might even say that the innovations made by DuPont were worth the price.
The Solution
There are many options when it comes to making water safer. The first step would be to ban C8. Even in small amounts, it is not safe to be producing or using this chemical. It is not a man-made chemical, and should not be present at all on earth, especially after finding out how harmful it is. At this point, there is not an actual solution to get rid of C8. We can take steps to make sure it is not used again, but a lot of the damage has already been done. Since C8 does not break down, there is no way to get rid of C8 completely. However, to clean our drinking water we can install carbon filtration systems. It cannot remove all of the C8, but it can help to get the levels below the advisory level. We can also make more restrictions on how much chemicals companies are allowed to dump. With a chemical this dangerous, any amount of it in water is dangerous, which is why it is so important to get it as low as possible. We also need to try to filter out other chemicals in our water. While C8 is still present in our water, we have other chemicals that are harmful as well. One of the biggest things we can do to increase our water quality is to make people informed. If people understand and know what is going on they will push to make a change. It is very obvious that water is not a priority to West Virginians. If you live in West Virginia, you are used to water advisories. For example, in 2014 there was a major chemical spill. 10,000 gallons of chemicals used to produce coal, were dumped in the Elk River. This specific water source serves about 300,000 people. A lot of the state was on a water advisory. West Virginia is ranked 47th when it comes to water quality. Ohio, whom West Virginia shares a lot of waterways with, is right behind us ranked 48th. When it comes to drinking water, West Virginia’s is over 4 times as bad as Ohio’s. This is why we need to make our water a priority.
We need to make room in our budget to install more water filtrations and testing of our water. In West Virginia’s 2019 state of the state address, Jim Justice announced that this year we had a bigger surplus and larger revenue than we have ever had before. 17.8 million was transferred to our “rainy day” fund. West Virginia has one of the highest “rainy day” funds in the country. In the new budget, it was proposed that only 2 million go into the safe drinking water program. It should be proposed that at least 2 million of the “rainy day” fund be moved to the safe drinking water program. There also needs to be more funding for the EPA to study chemicals. According to The Devil We Know, “There are more than 80,000 chemicals approved for use in the U.S.. Very few of them have been adequately tested for safety.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, in the past greed was more important than health. More steps need to be taken to make sure that West Virginians health is a top priority. It is recommended that every person drinks about 2 liters of water every day. This basic necessity of water should not be taken away. People need and deserve to have clean and pure water. West Virginians are forced to drink chemically laced water every day. One of these chemicals is C8, which was dumped by the company DuPont. To get our water back to the way it is supposed to be, we need to inform people of their water and how dangerous it could be.
