Hazards related to combustible dust “must be controlled beyond the existing regulatory requirements,” says the Chemical Safety Board, which renewed its call for OSHA to begin rulemaking on a general industry standard.
A decade later, environmental health advocates fear that with the licorice-like stench from the spilled chemicals at Freedom Industries that contaminated drinking water for 300,000 in West Virginia no longer piercing nostrils throughout the Kanawha Valley, water protection could slip further through the cracks.
The 2014 Elk River chemical leak showed West Virginians they d have to fight hard for basic environmental health protections. 10 years after the water crisis, advocacy continues.