Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said the
water crisis has hurt businesses, non-profits and even state government. That’s
why he’s appealed to FEMA and the Small Business Administration to give West Virginia
The January 9 chemical spill at
Freedom Industries into the Elk River in Charleston
Tomblin said restaurants were
hardest hit. They couldn’t reopen until they had a non-contaminated source of
water. He urged the SBA to come up with alternative funding sources.
“We need to get approval so that
loans will be available for them and grants to help them out. Obviously, maybe
they could do more then to help out their employees who have lost wages during
this period,” according to the governor.
He said the state could also use a
helping hand from FEMA.
“We’ve spent a lot of state money
making sure that people have water. [Water] testing has been very expensive,”
stated Tomblin.
He said the West Virginia National
Guard has been part of a team checking the water quality in towns from Charleston
As for more shipments of water,
Tomblin doesn’t believe FEMA will be sending any additional trucks. He said now
that the crisis is over and the water approved for consumption, people are
starting to find confidence in their taps.
The federal government and state
provided more than 11-million bottles of water to Kanawha County
