West Virginia Department of Health issues update on Wyoming County oil spill
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The West Virginia Department of Health issued an update last week on the transformer oil spill in Wyoming County that leaked into the Guyandotte watershed.
Robert Fields | WVOW News
CLEAR FORK The spill occurred in January at an Appalachian Power substation in the Clear Fork area just south of Oceana. Melting ice and snow in February accelerated the stream’s flow, resulting in what the WVDOH described as trace amounts of mineral oil downstream of the R.D. Bailey Dam.
Despite this finding, health department officials say there’s no reason for health concerns at this point. A social media post by the Health Department described the contaminant as “a highly-refined, PCB-free mineral oil commonly used in electrical equipment,” and says the oil is “not classified as a carcinogen and is considered non-toxic.”
Health officials’ decision to specify the lack of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) is due their historical use in electrical equipment prior to 1979, which is a valid concern in a region where retired mine sites may sit abandoned with much of their electrical infrastructure roughly intact. PCBs are known for their health risks, as well as their ability to cause long-lasting environmental contamination. They were banned a few years following the passage of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.
Similar concerns were raised just a couple of weeks earlier in January following a transformer oil spill near East Lynn that contaminated the Town of Wayne’s water infrastructure, left residents without potable water for about three weeks and resulted in prolonged closures for multiple schools. That spill was blamed on an alleged act of vandalism, while the Wyoming County spill was attributed to a transformer failure at the Clear Fork substation.
The West Virginia Department of Health advised all public water systems downstream of the R.D. Bailey Dam last week to add activated carbon to their water treatment processes as a precautionary measure. That recommendation remains in place pending laboratory results on local water quality. Health officials said a round of tests in early March showed “the presence of trace amounts of mineral oil slightly above the detection limit at two locations.”
PHOTO | WVDEP