W.Va. Officials: Paden City ‘Do Not Use’ Order Remains
CHARLESTON — An order will remain in effect to not use or consume the water in Paden City where the system was tainted with a solvent, state officials said Wednesday.
The order was issued last month because of the presence of tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, a solvent once commonly used in the dry cleaning business.
“It’s been something that has been close on our radar,” Dr. Matthew Christiansen, state health officer, said during Gov. Jim Justice’s press briefing Wednesday.
The state has been closely coordinating with the U.S. EPA, city officials, Emergency Management representatives and the state Division of Environmental Protection, he said. The priority is to get the concentration to acceptable limits as soon as possible, Christiansen said.
Paden City’s air stripper, which is designed to remove PCE from the water, went offline in July after a power outage at the plant caused a valve to malfunction. Because of that, tainted water was able to enter the city’s water system including people’s homes and businesses.
A water sample taken after that malfunction showed the water had PCE levels six times higher than what is allowed by national standards.
That air stripper has been brought back on board, Christiansen said.
“We are currently in the process of flushing the system and waiting for sampling results to come back after that initial flushing to make sure the water lines have no residual tracing of PCE before we can change any of those administrative orders,” Christiansen said.
The do not use and consume orders will remain in place, he said.
“Until there is no doubt in our minds that the chemical has been fully flushed from the system,” he said.
The administration continues to watch and monitor the situation in Paden City, Justice said.
The issue is the Paden City situation is a Superfund site of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Justice said. “They’re the lead agency and sometimes, you know, a federal agency will move a lot slower than we want to move.”