Nearly ten thousand gallons of latex spilled into the Potomac River on Wednesday September 23, 2015.
And Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls says that the spill resulted in a mile and a half slick that looked like “a very light green pea soup.”
And it wasn’t just a blob coming down the middle of the river.
“It covered the river — bank to bank,” Walls told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.
The incident happened at the Verso Corporation’s Luke paper mill about 25 miles southwest of Cumberland, Maryland.
The mill employs about 800 people and has the capacity to produce nearly 500,000 tons of paper a year.
The Maryland Department of the Environment is investigating the spill.
Walls says that a valve was left open in a train car and in four hours, 10,000 gallons of latex spilled into the treatment system of the facility.
“By the time the plant figured out there was a discharge, it was already going into the river,” Walls said.
Walls said he was alerted to the spill by several river guides along the North Branch of the Potomac.
“They saw the green color and they started making calls,” Walls said.
Walls said that the spill didn’t pose a public health threat and has since been diluted and is now downstream.
Walls says that generally speaking, the Potomac River is in good health.
Would he swim in it?
“I do it all the time – my family and I,” Walls said.
Except after it rains.
Then you have to be aware of sewage run off from the Cumberland area, he says.
Would he eat fish from the river?
Yes he would.
Unless it’s an intersex fish.
And intersex fish?
Yes, that’s a fish with both male and female organs.
How would you know whether it’s an intersex fish or not?
“Check the fish for lesions,” Walls says.
Walls says it is unclear what causes intersex fish. It could be pesticides.
Walls says that another threat to the upper Potomac River is fracking.
“You have a host of chemicals used in fracking,” Walls said. “The chemicals are in the backwater that comes up after they frack and retrieve the gas. If it’s not carefully contained and managed, those pollutants can get into our river systems or into our groundwater.”