Post-Apocalyptic Betwixt and Between

I had expected the early months of 2014 to be busy.  In our holiday cards this
http://www.nps.gov/meve/photosmultime..., Rick and I announced that we had purchased a home in Virginia and would be moving over the coming months.  Little did we know the backdrop against which our move would take place.
Now I travel the 350 miles between our new home and our old home.  Never could I have imagined that I would be carrying dirty sheets and towels from our old house to our new house where I can wash them in water that I trust.  Never would I have guessed how grateful I could feel for safe water gushing out of a faucet that I can use to wash my hands as many times a day as I wish.  I took this and so many other things that come with safe water for granted.  I don't do that anymore.  I may not for a long time.
On January 9th, an unspecified quantity of a chemical used for cleaning coal, (estimated at 10,000 gallons) leaked into the Elk River and contaminated the water supply for 300,00 people. My heart hurts for friends and families affected by this disaster.  I am angry at government and industry.  And the love/hate relationship I've had with West Virginia grows ever more complex.

I remember the last time I visited Mesa Verde in the Four Corners region of Colorado, where the Ancient Pueblo people, also called the Anasazi, lived from about 600 A.D. to around 1300.  At one time, according to a National Park Service guide I talked to, there were nearly 400,000 people living in a widespread region that encompassed parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.  What happened?  Among the explanations researchers have offered is the fact that the region endured prolonged drought.  A society which had grown and prospered for hundreds of years migrated elsewhere and never returned because (according to many) of the loss of a reliable water supply.


While I understand the differences between the circumstances in the Kanawha Valley in 2014 and the impact that a prolonged drought had on the Ancient Pueblo civilization in the 13th century, I cannot stop thinking about the parallels between the two situations.  The Freedom Industries spill was not the first chemical emergency the Charleston area has experienced, though it has certainly caused more far-reaching consequences than any of the others.  Still, actions which could have been taken to address issues such as proper monitoring and inspection of aging chemical storage tanks located just above the intake for the community water supply, were not taken before.  Will they be taken now?   It is my fervent hope and prayer that community, government and industry leaders will work with residents of Charleston and the other localities affected by the spill to fix the water supply and take preventive measures to assure this never happens again.  You cannot have a thriving community without clean water.


If you build it, they will come.  But, rest assured, if you take away a safe water supply, they will go.