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Frustration is mounting for many of the 300,000 West Virginia residents who have gone without clean tap water since a chemical spill on Thursday. Business owners with empty dining rooms and quiet aisles of merchandise around West Virginia's capital city were left to wonder how much of an economic hit they will take from the spill.

Most visitors have cleared out of Charleston while locals are either staying home or driving out of the area to find somewhere they can get a hot meal or a shower. Orders not to use tap water for much other than flushing toilets mean that the spill is an emergency not just for the environment but also for local businesses.

The emergency began on Thursday, following complaints to West Virginia American Water about a licorice-type odour in the tap water. The source: the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, which had leaked out of a 40,000-gallon (151,400-litre) tank at a Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River.

State officials said on Saturday they believe about 7,500 gallons leaked. Some of the chemical was contained before flowing into the river; it is not clear exactly how much entered the water supply.

seeahill wrote:I don't think it's a hippie thing. Lot's of media concentrated in NY. Bridge story either directly affects them or people they know. A media thing, not a hippie thing.

seeahill wrote:I don't think it's a hippie thing. Lot's of media concentrated in NY. Bridge story either directly affects them or people they know. A media thing, not a hippie thing.