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UK Against Fluoridation

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

USA - Council will pay penalty over spill

Council will pay penalty over spill
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Almost $16,450 in penalties that Martinsville owes the state due to a chemical spill into Jones Creek last fall will be taken from the city water department’s budget, according to Interim City Manager Leon Towarnicki.
It will not affect the department much, he surmised.
Martinsville City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to pay the money.
“We don’t have a choice, do we?” said Councilman Gene Teague.
Actually, the city could file a lawsuit to challenge the penalty. However, City Attorney Eric Monday suggested against pursuing that option, not knowing what the outcome would be and how much the city ultimately might have to pay if it lost the suit.
About 1,000 gallons of fluorosilicic acid — also known as fluoride — leaked from a tank at the city water treatment plant off Clearview Drive on Oct. 16, according to city Emergency Management Coordinator Bobby Phillips.
Fluoride, a chemical version of the element fluorine, is used in many public water supplies to help prevent tooth decay.
The State Water Control Board determined that the spill caused the deaths of an estimated 4,445 fish, and the city violated state code, a consent order shows. The estimate was made using American Fisheries Society methods.
Phillips said the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) never told the city what types of fish died.
However, they were “very, very small fish,” he said, to his understanding.

He blamed the leak mainly on a valve accidentally being left open, but he said the failure of a transfer pump was a contributing factor.

Fluorosilicic acid is “a very strong acid ... with a very corrosive effect on any metals it touches,” and corrosion caused the pump to fail, he said........

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