Nichole Westfall, a mural artist, provided a mural that attendees helped paint that read “In Each Drop a Dream: All Our Mountain Streams Run Clean” — an ideal well over 300 people rallied behind at the event led by the West Virginia Rivers Coalition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the chemical leak.
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.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition and other advocacy groups are presenting a free event at the Culture Center to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2014 Elk River chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water supply of 300,000 residents.