With the increase in chemical dependency, disasters were imminent with the presence of such volatile chemicals. In 1984, a chemical leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) killed thousands of villagers in Bhopal, India. The only US plant known to manufacture MIC was located at the Union Carbide plant in West Virginia. The Union Carbide plant was sold two years after the disaster. During the 1980s and 1990s, the same plant saw a leak, an explosion and a fire, resulting in many nonfatal injuries. Later, in 2008, after Bayer CropScience bought the plant, another explosion killed two workers and lead to federal attention after explosive projectiles nearly penetrated an aboveground MIC storage tank. Finally, in 2011, Bayer CropScience announced plans to dismantle the MIC production unit. While investigation ensued after the 2008 explosion, no action was taken by the state or government. (Parker, 2014). In 2010, another death occurred at a DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia, resulting from the release of three chemicals (Kloc, 2014). These represent some of the more recent, and bigger, disasters, however many smaller ones have occurred over the history of the Valley. With around 200 chemical facilities and at least 50 hazardous waste sites in the Kanawha River Valley, disasters such as the Freedom Industries spill are imminent unless properly managed. Although improvements have been made since federal regulations have been put in place to regulate water and waste, toxic substances continue to be released into the river basin, ultimately contaminating the river and severely impacting the environmental health of the ecosystem.
References:
Parker, L. (2014, January 16). A Century of Controversy, Accidents in West Virginia’s Chemical Valley in Lead-up to Spill. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140116-chemical-valley-west-virginia-chemical-spill-coal/#close-modal .
Kloc, J. (2014). Nary a Drop to Drink. Newsweek Global, 162(9), 23-34.