Company confirms new leak into river
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A second chemical was released during a spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians, state officials said Wednesday, though the newly identified substance appears to be less toxic than the coal-cleaning agent already known to have leaked.
State officials sharply criticized the company at the center of the Jan. 9 spill for failing to report the presence of the second chemical and ordered it to disclose everything that leaked into the Elk River from their storage tank by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Freedom Industries didn’t report until Tuesday that a mixture of polyglycol ethers, or PPH, also entered the water system when the spill occurred.
Air Force secretary visits nuclear bases
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. – The top civilian leader in the Air Force said Wednesday she has “picked up on morale issues” among airmen and officers in charge of the nation’s nuclear force but remains confident in its mission.
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James visited Minot Air Force Base, the latest in a string of stops from high-level officials in response to various blunders at the military installations that care for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. She visited F.E. Warren Air Force Base at Cheyenne, Wyo., Tuesday and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Mont., Tuesday and earlier Wednesday.
The fact-finding tour, in response to cheating and drug scandals the Air Force announced last week as well as a string of other missteps The Associated Press revealed in 2013, is aimed at finding the breadth of problems within the force that operates the nation’s Minuteman 3 nuclear missiles.
James told reporters that she has “full confidence in the nuclear mission.”
Associated Press
