On January 9, I was one of 300,000 West Virginians who learned their water had been contaminated by a chemical leak two miles upstream from the state’s largest drinking-water intake. Predictably, politicians and the public are clamoring for heads to roll—most notably those of managers at the Freedom Industries plant responsible for the leak. 
 
 Freedom Industries should be held accountable, but that won’t fix the problem. That’s because the Elk River spill wasn’t an isolated accident. It was the inevitable consequence of weak regulatory enforcement over many years, made possible by our collective failure to uphold the values we profess. 
 
 We all say we value clean water, so why do we accept pollution as the status quo, as a byproduct of everyday life? In public opinion polls, Americans routinely and overwhelmingly say that it’s the job of government to ensure clean water. And yet we continue to let elected officials off the hook when it comes to clean water laws. 
 
 In this light, the Elk River spill could be the future of many American cities. It’s one in which systems failures cause local catastrophic events—leaving taxpayers to foot the bill to clean up after polluters. 
 
 Since the earliest days of the chemical industry, it has been a major part of West Virginia’s economy. We live every day with the potential for toxic leaks into our waterways, knowing the consequences can be devastating. We shouldn’t have to live this way. 
 
 Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, industry has worked diligently to weaken the law’s enforcement and oversight. 
 
 As the director of an organization that advocates for clean water, I regularly witness the audacious influence of industry as it cajoles lawmakers and regulators to lower production costs by lowering the bar on public health. I review the same data as the politicians do on the risks to public health posed by weakening clean-water standards. But when it comes to environmental stewardship, data and facts are no match for industry’s sway over government. 
 
 And at times like these, I see the irony of politicians scapegoating a company whose pollution is enabled by government’s failure to adequately regulate. We’ve allowed them to foster a culture of neglect instead of one of oversight and accountability. 
 
 The Mountain State enjoys an abundance of water, but year after year we have seen access to clean water diminish. Our water has paid the price for our legacy of mining, gas drilling, coal-burning power plants, and chemical production. We have seen the steady chipping away of our water quality standards to help reduce costs to big coal. We have seen the injustices of people’s right to clean water usurped by industries. Indeed, there are parts of West Virginia that will never have access to clean water, where industrial pollution has caused irreparable harm to water supplies. 
 
 I hope the West Virginia water crisis reminds us about how dependent we are on clean rivers for our health and security. Now is the time to take a critical look at how to better protect our water sources. We can do this only by acknowledging that the Elk River spill is not a story about an isolated leak. This is about the need for systemic changes in industrial practices and our national responsibility to establish and enforce adequate protections. 
 
 We need to look at ourselves and remember our values. We need to be true to our relationship with water by expanding our expectations of elected leaders. And industries and consumers need to accept the costs of safer, more environmentally-sound production of certain goods and services. That’s the price of clean water. 
 
 Clean water is essential for life. It is also essential for our national and global security. I hope that once the immediate crisis is over, serious thought will go into meaningful reforms and investment in protecting our rivers and streams that are our lifeline. 
 
 Angie Rosser is executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition in Charleston, W.Va., a statewide nonprofit organization focused on water quality issues. She lives on the Elk River upstream from the spill. In 2013 she was part of a successful effort to secure endangered species status for the Elk River Diamond Darter, a fish found only in the Elk River in West Virginia. Copyright Blue Ridge Press 2014. 
 
 Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Epoch Times. ||||| CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The ban on tap water for parts of West Virginia was lifted on Monday, ending a crisis for a fraction of the 300,000 people who were told not to drink, wash or cook with water after a chemical spill tainted the water supply. 
 
 Gov. Earl Tomblin made the announcement at a news conference, five days after people were told to use the water only to flush their toilets. 
 
 "The numbers we have today look good and we are finally at a point where the 'do not use' order has been lifted," he said. 
 
 Officials were lifting the ban in a strict, methodical manner to help ensure the water system was not overwhelmed by excessive demand, which could cause more water quality and service problems. Customers were asked to flush out their systems before using the water again. 
 
 Officials cautioned the water could still have a licorice-type odor, but they said it was safe. 
 
 "It's not going to bother me as long as we know it's clean," said Peter Triplett, a state library commission worker who was in the first area allowed to use water. "It's been rough going." 
 
 About 6,000 to 10,000 customers were cleared to use the water again Monday, and it could be days before the entire water system was cleared, West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre said. 
 
 The first area cleared was downtown Charleston, the state capital and its largest city. Restaurants, day-care centers and schools there have closed during the emergency. 
 
 Schools Superintendent James Phares said he hoped the largest two school systems could reopen Tuesday, but cautioned: "We're not going to be rushing them back to school if it's not safe." 
 
 The water crisis started Thursday when a chemical used in coal processing leaked from a Freedom Industries plant into the nearby Elk River. 
 
 Complaints came in to West Virginia American Water about the odor. The source was the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol that spilled out of a 40,000 gallon tank. 
 
 State officials believe about 7,500 gallons leaked from the tank. Some of the chemical was contained before flowing into the river and it's not clear exactly how much entered the water supply. 
 
 Federal authorities, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, opened an investigation into the spill. 
 
 Over the past few days, tests have showed that levels were consistently below a toxic threshold, and in some samples, there was no trace of the chemical at all. Officials were also keeping a close eye on water downstream to make sure there was no further impact. No fish kills or other impact on aquatic life, wildlife or pets were reported. 
 
 Water distribution centers have handed out bottled water and trucks with large tanks of water have filled up containers for people to take home. 
 
 Some people put plastic bags around faucets so that they were reminded not to use the water. Others have left town to take a shower and find an open restaurant. 
 
 Only 14 people exposed to the contaminated water were admitted to the hospital, and none were in serious condition. 
 
 The chemical, even in its most concentrated form, isn't deadly. However, people were told they shouldn't even wash their clothes in affected water, as the compound can cause symptoms ranging from skin irritation and rashes to vomiting and diarrhea. 
 
 Lawmakers were to return to the Capitol on Monday after Friday's session was cut short because there wasn't any water. Their work now will likely include a look at how Freedom Industries flew under the regulatory radar. 
 
 Freedom Industries' tanks don't fall under an inspection program and the chemicals stored at the facility weren't considered hazardous enough to require environmental permitting, but there's already talk about changing that, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said. One idea is to require tanks to be a certain distance from the river, he said. 
 
 Company president Gary Southern held a brief news conference Friday night, but otherwise company officials have declined to comment. 
 
 "We have mitigated the risk, we believe, in terms of further material leaving this facility," he said then. 
 
 The coal and chemical industries are major forces in the state's economy, providing thousands of jobs, but they also pose risks of spills and mine disasters. West Virginia is the second-largest coal producing state, behind Wyoming, and the state has about 150 chemical companies. The area where the spill happened is known as Chemical Valley. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Pam Ramsey, Brendan Farrington and Mitch Weiss in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.
– The West Virginia water crisis is almost over. Gov. Earl Tomblin today lifted the ban on tap water for some parts of the state, saying that officials wanted to bring the system back on slowly to avoid a flood of excessive demand. But environmental activist Angie Rosser at the Epoch Times isn't ready to put the incident behind her. She's one of the people who've been without running water for the past five days, and she thinks it "wasn't an isolated incident." "The Elk River spill could be the future of many American cities," she writes, because the kind of regulatory failings that caused it occur all over. Politicians are eager to scapegoat Freedom Industries, but that's hypocritical given the "audacious influence" she's seen the chemical industry exert on politicians, overcoming solid data about public health risks. Hopefully, this crisis is a wake-up call. "We all say we value clean water," she reasons, "so why do we accept pollution as the status quo?" Click for Rosser's full column.