Recent water samples from a West Virginia plant that draws from the River Elk have come back with trace amounts of the chemical known as MCHM, which may pose a concern for local specialist companies such as HMS Plumbing .
Taken late last March, the samples in question have revealed levels of this chemical ranging from 0.42 parts per billion to 0.60 parts per billion, which are not considered by experts to be worrisome. On the contrary, a prepared statement from the plant has declared these volumes too low to be properly analysed, considering them more of an estimate than actual values.
The health screening level for this chemical is set at one part per billion, which would make these affirmations essentially true. Still, the presence of this chemical in West Virginian drinking water could lead to plumbing problems requiring the expert services of companies such as HMS Plumbing.
The testing in question was conducted at the behest of the West Virginia Testing Assessment Project, in the wake of the chemical spill which affected most of the state’s water supply earlier this year. The samples from West Virginia American Water’s Elk River plant, where MCHM was detected, were analysed out of state by a specialist outfit, but the WVTAP recently released the results of their own study, conducted across ten West Virginia homes during the same period. The conclusions reached by analysing those samples were rather similar to those sent back by the Pennsylvania lab: the water contained MCHM, but its levels were far below the one-part-per limit officially considered dangerous.
The presence of the chemical was detected across seven sets of samples taken on the same day from six different points within the plant’s water-filtering facility. In a curious turn of events, the samples of unfiltered, ‘raw’ water put under scrutiny did not present any amount of MCHM — only the filtered ones denoted traces of the chemical. The tiny amounts of the substance present in these samples are considered to have simply come from the filters, where they may potentially have got caught.
Virginia was affected by a state-wide chemical leak earlier this year, which left a lot of homes devoid of drinking water for a period of a few weeks.
About HMS Plumbing:
HMS Plumbing are based in Northern Virginia, USA, and provide plumbing services to a number of surrounding counties. Learn more at www.hmsplumbing.com .
Contact Details:
10319 Piper Lane
Manassas, VA 20110
+1 703-583-8205
[email protected]