The Kanawha River has been and continues to be a major part of West Virginian commerce; without the river, early West Virginia settlers would have been few and far between. Early settlers along the river developed rafts that could be used as transportation up and down the river for many things, but notably for trade. Trading is what allowed these settlers to survive in the mountainous landscape of West Virginia. Not long after the development of the raft and trading routes that included this part of the nation, the timber exports exploded. The Poplar trees, that are native along the Kanawha River, were a hot commodity of the time for both eastern and western markets. Also, there is a salt bed that is located under the Kanawha and was another major export of the time. These industries boomed for many years, helping the economy of West Virginia get started, but World War 1 would change everything. WWI demanded higher timber production and exporting from the area, which was great for the economy, but it also demanded the production of chemical weapons. This would also help the economy, but at the high price of crippling the environment, including the Kanawha that had been so reliable to the West Virginia people. Chemical plants such as the one seen in Figure 1 would soon pop up all along the banks of the Kanawha.
Figure 1- Freedom Industries
At first, the issues were mostly unknown and undetectable, but over the years, conditions in the river have become much worse and now need serious attention and policy reform. The chemicals that are released into the river each day are harmful to the river as an ecosystem and for humans as a food and water source. The daily chemical inputs are bad enough, but when an accident occurs at one of the chemical or energy plants, there is a serious concern for the river and for the people of West Virginia. Figure 2 shows one way that the water is affected when a chemical accident occurs.
Figure 2- Kanawha blackened by coal slurry
In an event such as a chemical spill, health hazardous for humans are numerous, and even more so for the organisms that rely solely on the river for food and habitat. The Kanawha River has a long history of benefiting the West Virginian economy and its people, but chemical and energy plants are raising some serious issues that are putting the ecosystems of the river and the people of West Virginia in jeopardy.
Read more at: http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvhs1401.html
Featured Image: http://outreach.lrh.usace.army.mil/Industries/Coal/