A consolidated class-action complaint contends that poor management of a construction project extending runways at Yeager Airport created conditions causing runoff, contributing to the January chemical leak that left hundreds of thousands of West Virginians without water.
The West Virginia Gazette reported that in the complaint, filed June 20 in federal court, plaintiffs allege the airport’s runway extension project, which began in 2004, created storm water runoff that disturbed the Freedom Industries tank farm. This eventually led to the failure of the tank that leaked 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) and PPH (polyglycol ethers), chemicals, mostly used to clean coal.
The chemical leak began on Jan. 9, when authorities discovered that 7,500 gallons of chemicals had leaked from an aging storage tank into the nearby Elk River.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued a State of Emergency for Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam and Roane counties. Up to 300,000 residents were affected and hundreds were sickened. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed since the coal-cleaning chemical contaminated the region’s water supply.
The complaint, filed by residents and businesses affected by the spill, states that, “erosion of the tank’s foundation and the increased water on the tank site and the associated process of repeated wetting and drying of the tank bottom, which resulted from the Airport’s runway extension project and the lack of associated or adequate storm water controls, significantly caused or contributed to the MCHM tank’s failure in January 2014.”
The new complaint also names Triad Engineering as a defendant. Triad worked for the airport on the extension project, which had numerous problems from the start. The complaint states that the airport and Triad “did not design or plan for any permanent storm water detention or retention structures following completion of the runway extension project.
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According to the lawsuit, storm water controls that were installed were inadequate to control the excess storm water caused from construction.