2014-01-11: Water-free West Virginia

Three hundred thousand people across nine counties in near Charleston, West Virginia including Charleston itself, are without water due to chemical contamination of the water supply (the Elk River). From a practical and logistical standpoint, the biggest problem is that this contamination is such that even boiling the water won’t do any good. All it can be used for is flushing toilets — not drinking, not showering, not laundry. 

FEMA has trucked in 1 million liters of H2O so far… not even a gallon per person affected. This problem is bigger than what all but the most food-storage-conscious family might be able to handle (on a short-term basis).

To me, the worst part of the whole mess is that the coal-processing chemical company where the leak originated didn’t even bother to notify WVa’s water authority… it was discovered after the authority fielded complaints from people downstream. Unknown how long the leak’s been happening and how many people (including unborn children) this may affect. Moreover, it’s still unknown at present exactly how long it’s going to take before people will have access to clean water again. Here’s hoping it will be soon. And I hope the company pays the costs for trucking in water and is fined up the wazoo for negligence.

Of course, all this reminds me of my little Y2K water-storage fiasco. (No, one really cannot just stack gallon bottles of water on top of one another. Let’s just leave it at that.)

I occasionally play The Survival Game in my head: which room of our Berlin flat or of our row house in Quinson would be most defensible? How long could we subsist on what we have? What of water, power, and sewer? … And so on. I’m afraid we’re not very well-positioned for a zombie apocalypse, especially if the city/village grid and other infrastructure on which we so heavily rely goes off-line, as it surely would eventually.

With all of the dire climate change reports of late, the question of food and water is insinuating itself into my consciousness a little bit, but no, we’re not in any real shape to do anything about stocking up, even if there are arguments for doing so. I can’t see us doing a Y2K-like prep again even if we had the money. Nor do I want to follow in my youngest brother’s fanatical footsteps. (To me, one significant earthquake and/or landslide, or worse yet, a wildfire, would impact all his preparations vs. The Marauding Hordes or whatever he’s envisioning as the enemy he’s fortifying his property against. Ah well.)

I am genuinely puzzled about what makes sense to do to prepare for the coming lean years during this time of only slightly waning fat years. It will be the third-world and then second-world countries that will first feel the brunt of crop and water failures. In past times, famine and drought (and yes, warfare, of course warfare) were catalysts for huge waves of migration. Not clear to me how “civilized” first-world countries will respond to even greater numbers and bigger waves. It will not be pretty (it never is). On verra. “Enjoy it while it lasts” (assuming that “it” is a first-world lifestyle). 

…But it really seems like there ought to be something more one could do about at least some aspect of it. Hmm.

Update, Feb. 8: Nearly a full month later, the hapless 300,000 are still without potable water, with no end to the misery in sight. Their governor insists that no new regulations are necessary. Uh-huh, riiiight.

Update, 2023-05-01: I haven’t found out how long it took for potable water to be restored to Charleston. However, in a related situation, Jackson, the capital city of Mississippi, has been without potable water for many weeks now; the largest remaining segment of its population is poor and black, which means the people there have no political clout with their Republican lawmakers and governor. Ghastly.