Deadly W.VA Chemical Spill Hits Ohio River; Threatens Water Systems for Three Million People

You can't escape pollution, no matter how far away it begins. Eventually, it comes for you, too.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

Two Kentucky water systems temporarily shut down their intakes early Monday as a plume of the chemical spilled last week in West Virginia passed in the Ohio River.

The cities of Ashland and Russell stopped drawing water from the Ohio after the chemical — 4-methycyclohexane methanol, or MCHM — reached Ashland at 5:30 a.m., according to the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection.
 
The level of the chemical at Ashland was 0.023 parts per million, according to the state. That is well below the level of 1 ppm that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly told West Virginia officials would be an acceptable level in drinking water.

The Ohio River is 981 miles long, from Pittsburgh to Paducah. It touches six state and provides drinking water for three million people. And that's before it joins the Mississippi River.