On February 5th at approximately 6:45 pm, we were contacted by the Kanawha County Emergency Management Service about a possible oil spill in Boone County. We learned in the coming hour that no more than 5,000 gallons of mineral oil (containing no PCBs) were leaked into a containment pond more than 55 miles upstream from our intake. At the time they were unsure if any had made it into Pond Fork (a tributary of the Little Coal River). We made the decision to run our plant throughout the night to be full the next day when the possible contaminant was calculated to be near us. We have online equipment that constantly monitors river conditions at our intake. No abnormalities were recorded throughout the night of the 5th and morning of the 6th.
On February 6th after the plant was shut down, we received a call from Kanawha County Metro (around 1:20 PM) stating that two houses in the Lakewood area of town had called reporting an odd smell in the water. We immediately sent employees to the area to check houses and hydrants. No abnormalities were found. This is the only call received by the water plant for the remainder of the day. We continued to check other houses and hydrants throughout the rest of our water system. To be cautious we contacted the WVDHHR for support and guidance. Due to it being a weekend we were unable to send any samples to the state lab. As the plant continues to be shut down this morning (2/7/22) we will continue to monitor the situation and collect samples throughout the system to be sent for testing. Any further information will be available as we receive it.
