The House Judiciary Committee will
be the next stop for the bill written in the wake of the Jan. 9 chemical leak
along the Elk River in Kanawha County that contaminated tap water for 300 thousand West Virginians .
Members of the House Health and
Human Resources Committee advanced the proposal on Wednesday night after adding
an amendment that requires every water treatment plant in West Virginia
West Virginia American Water
Company’s Kanawha Valley Water Treatment Plant, which provides water for
residents in parts of nine counties, only takes in water from the Elk River .
When an estimated 10,000 gallons of
a mixture of crude MCHM and PPH traveled downstream from Freedom Industries,
company officials said they did not close the intake because of concerns about
water services for sanitation and fire suppression.
Company officials have since
estimated it would have taken weeks to fully restore water service following a
full shutdown.
Lane said his amendment will ensure
there are other options in the future.
The costs of meeting such an
additional requirement was not immediately clear, but Lane said he thought such
an investment would be worth it in the long run. “I think it’s important
for water providers to live up to their duty to provide clean and drinkable
water,” said Lane.
Overall, the proposed bill would
regulate above ground storage tanks, like the tank that leaked in January, by
mandating annual tank inspections, among other things. Water utilities
would also have to establish emergency plans to deal with future possible
contaminations.
The vote in the House Health and
Human Resources Committee on Wednesday night was unanimous.
The full Senate has already
approved a tank regulatory bill that looks different than the one that
continues to more through the House.
