The Frog in the Pot

Charleston lies close to the Kanawha River like scales along the serpentine river's back The Elk River is a tributary with its confluence with the Kanawha within the boundaries of Charleston. If one cares to look at the satellite imagery on google earth the location of Freedom Industries can be found mere feet from the banks of the Elk River. Huge storage tanks are visible with no means of containment between them and the river. Downstream from this facility lies the intake for West Virginia American Water Company. It's parent company is the same company that owns Kentucky American Water Company which serves the bluegrass area. West Virginia American serves hundreds of thousands of people in the greater Charleston area with drinking water.

On January 9^th a leak came in one of the storage tanks and leaked some amount of a chemical that is virtually unpronounceable by anyone without a degree in chemistry into the Elk River. The amount is currently estimated at about 7500 gallons but it has contaminated the entire water company system and those hundreds of thousands of people were left without water. Not only drinking water but also water for cooking and bathing. Without potable water businesses were forced to close and the region was virtually paralyzed. Oh, water was trucked in and we saw pictures of people carrying water home in kitty litter buckets. We are used to seeing these scenes in third world countries after a catastrophe of some kind but no so much here in the US of A.

The President declared the area a disaster area which allowed FEMA, the agency the Tea Party wants to eliminate, to intervene with emergency assistance. Now, just a few days later the all clear has been given to use the water but people can still smell the scent of licorice and are becoming ill from using it. So what are we to make of this. Is this just a cost of doing business, part of the cost of having a job to go to? Should we just accept this as an unavoidable occurrence that happens from time to time?

Well, at least until the Tea Party has its way, we still have FEMA. FEMA is a federal agency and is funded by tax dollars. So, those of us who approve of social programs and their impact on societies are glad that we, as a nation, came together to help those natives of Charleston in their time of need. Those who think that social programs are a waste of money and only enable losers and no-goodniks will clench their teeth and rage against the Mommy State. Or would they? Perhaps depending on their proximity to the catastrophe.

So, here we have a profitable business that supplies chemicals used to clean coal, another profitable business. Now, as a result of this “accident” those businesses have caused a great deal of consternation among the citizens of this area and have caused undetermined millions of dollars of damage to the local economy and to the environment. The effect on public health is yet to be determined but my opinion is that if it causes a rash, stinks and will make you sick it is probably bad for you.

All that to get here. Who pays for all this damage. Who pays to clean up the water system? Who pays for lost productivity? Who pays medical bills? Did anyone believe that those storage tanks were safe in perpetuity and needed no containment provisions? Why wasn't there more regulatory oversight and inspections? But wait! All of those things are functions of a society that uses socialistic efforts to spread the cost around to benefit the whole and therein lies a problem.

Let's say that in a free enterprise world that the entity that creates the damage pays the bills. I'm OK with that but that is not what happens. During the Gulf Oil Spill huge amounts of money were assessed against BP but just about anyone will tell you that the true costs have neither been assessed nor paid for. But let's just say that Freedom Industries has to pay to clean this up. They are a business that has to make a profit or go broke. If they go broke who pays the bills? That's right, the taxpayer or those who were harmed just go ahead and suffer through no fault of their own without any further recourse.

What if Freedom Industries had to charge enough for their product to cover these unforeseen costs? Would their product be as competitive in the marketplace or not? If their price were higher then the costs of cleaning the coal would be higher and while we are at it what if the coal industry had to pay for the costs of reclamation, water damage, air pollution and cleanup, and removing mercury from our fish? Isn't that capitalism at its finest? Businesses sell products, pay the bills and what is left is profit? Would coal still be as affordable as some say it is? Just a note: Freedom Industry parentage eventually ends up at Koch Industries, those exemplars of free enterprise.

This is not free enterprise. This is socialism for industry and our economic system is shot through with it. The ways that we allow pollution that we will have to deal with only makes the sale price of the product a false price. One that is subsidized by the American citizen in a pervasive system of political corruption that keeps most citizens in the dark about the true costs of doing business while cramming the pockets of those with enough clout to buy legislation. And the divide between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider until, like the proverbial frog in the cooking pot, we are done. Stick a fork in us.

My take? The current news is of the GOP managing to cut dollars out of the budget for enforcement of consumer protection regulations and they're pretty happy about it. The only purpose can be to enable the pickpocketing of the rapidly disappearing middle class. Time to get mad about it.