The fact that this second chemical also hit the Elk River was announced this Tuesday

Jan 22, 2014 23:06 GMT  ·  By
The storage tank that leaked in West Virginia contained not one, but two chemicals
   The storage tank that leaked in West Virginia contained not one, but two chemicals

The chemical spill that occurred in the state of West Virginia in the United States this past January 9 is back in the spotlight.

This time, the piece of news that is making headlines is the fact that, as revealed by federal and state officials this past Tuesday, the storage tank that leaked through a hole in its side did not contain just MCHM.

On the contrary, it contained one other chemical by the name PPH. This second chemical is now said to have also spilled into the Elk River, together with the MCHM.

According to Clean Technica, the volume of PPH that was present in the storage tank and that leaked into the environment amounted to roughly 300 gallons.

This volume is not all that impressive when compared to the 7,500 gallons of MCHM documented to have left the storage tank, yet odds are people would have liked to know about its presence in the brew sooner rather than later.

More so given the fact that, as the same source tells us, PPH is said to be a skin and eye irritant.

Officials reassure that, although PPh also spilled on January 9, there is no reason to worry, simply because this chemical is easily disposed of during normal water treatment operations.

News of the presence of this second chemical in Freedom Industries storage tank comes shortly after the company’s announcement that, in an attempt to do some damage control financially-wise, it had decided to file for bankruptcy.

As previously reported, the chemical spill that occurred in West Virginia earlier this month translated into a water ban being imposed in several counties. All in all, some 300,000 people were affected.

It was several days before the ban was lifted and, oddly enough, not long after this happened the number of people in need of medical attention pretty much doubled.