{"id":1995,"date":"2015-10-14T21:40:14","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1995"},"modified":"2015-10-14T21:41:37","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T01:41:37","slug":"upper-potomac-riverkeeper-brent-walls-on-the-ten-thousand-gallon-latex-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1995","title":{"rendered":"Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls on the Ten Thousand Gallon Latex Spill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly ten thousand gallons of latex spilled into the Potomac River on Wednesday September 23, 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CfghVKobcro\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.potomacriverkeepernetwork.org\/brent-walls\">Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls<\/a> says that the spill resulted in a mile and a half slick that looked like \u201ca very light green pea soup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it wasn\u2019t just a blob coming down the middle of the river. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt covered the river &#8212; bank to bank,\u201d Walls told <em>This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The incident happened at the Verso Corporation\u2019s Luke paper mill about 25 miles southwest of Cumberland, Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mill employs about 800 people and has the capacity to produce nearly 500,000 tons of paper a year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Maryland Department of the Environment is investigating the spill.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBy the time the plant figured out there was a discharge, it was already going into the river,\u201d Walls said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walls said he was alerted to the spill by several river guides along the North Branch of the Potomac.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey saw the green color and they started making calls,\u201d Walls said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walls said that the spill didn\u2019t pose a public health threat and has since been diluted and is now downstream.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walls says that generally speaking, the Potomac River is in good health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Would he swim in it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI do it all the time &#8211; my family and I,\u201d Walls said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Except after it rains. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then you have to be aware of sewage run off from the Cumberland area, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Would he eat fish from the river?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes he would.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unless it\u2019s an intersex fish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And intersex fish?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, that\u2019s a fish with both male and female organs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How would you know whether it\u2019s an intersex fish or not?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCheck the fish for lesions,\u201d Walls says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Walls says it is unclear what causes intersex fish. It could be pesticides.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walls says that another threat to the upper Potomac River is fracking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou have a host of chemicals used in fracking,\u201d Walls said. \u201cThe chemicals are in the backwater that comes up after they frack and retrieve the gas. If it\u2019s not carefully contained and managed, those pollutants can get into our river systems or into our groundwater.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201ca very light green &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1995\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1997,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995\/revisions\/1997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}