Rev. Brad Davis, co-director of the advocacy group From Below, holds up a bottle of tap water from a McDowell County home outside the House chamber during a rally for immaculate water on February 16, 2026 in Charleston, West Virginia. (Photo by Caity Coyne/West Virginia Watch)
On January 9, 2014, a sweet licorice scent wafted through Kanawha County, West Virginia, for hours before 300,000 people learned that their water had been poisoned by a leaking water tank crude 4-methylcyclohexanemethanola chemical used to immaculate coal.
Freedom Industries was responsible for the leak, which affected nine counties – Boone, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Putnam, Roane and Cabell. For several days, people were unable to use their tap water for drinking or bathing. Other states shipped bottled water so West Virginia residents could get it for free.
At the Charleston Gazette copy desk, we all tried not to get too close to each other, afraid we’d stink because we couldn’t shower for days but still had to go to work. My hair was full of arid shampoo. Hands had to be washed with bottled water and teeth brushed. We couldn’t use washing machines or dishwashers. Cooking was complex.
Maybe he doesn’t know how bad it was because Republican Sen. Chris Rose is from Monongalia County. He doesn’t know that some people are still afraid to use their tap water 12 years later. That must be why he introduced Senate Bill 641thereby easing the requirements of the Above Ground Storage Tanks Act, which was passed after the Freedom Industries chemical leak in 2014.
Sen. Patricia Rucker, a Republican from Jefferson County, also doesn’t have to remember the Freedom Industries leaks because she said she supported the bill as an “outside observer.” Oh, and she also received at least $21,000 from lobbying groups, individuals, and oil and gas industry companies during her 2020 and 2024 elections. according to campaign finance reports filed.
Rose says his bill is intended to assist miniature “small” gas companies “that are barely making ends meet because we keep passing new regulations.”
If a company, regardless of size, cannot afford to comply with safety regulations, perhaps it should not be in business. These regulations are designed to protect our water and our health, and Rose cares more about the oil and gas companies’ wallets.
But this bill will not only loosen regulations for miniature, domestic oil and gas companies, it will also benefit huge oil and gas companies from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas that have tanks in critical zones in West Virginia. according to documents from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Since the above-ground storage tank law was passed, members of the Legislature have attempted to relax the requirements at least 12 times. According to Scott Mandirola, technical advisor for water policy and regulations for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, a bill passed in 2017 exempted about 22,000 tanks from the law, while Senate Bill 641 would exempt about 1,000 more tanks.
I spoke to an expert about this bill – my father, Jerry Ray. He worked for the state Department of Environmental Protection for 33 years, most of that time in the water resources division, primarily in the permitting process. He retired about ten years before the above-ground storage tank law was passed.
He said that until then there had been no regulations for above-ground storage tanks, but if the DEP found that a tank was leaking, it could prosecute the owner or operator for water contamination.
The original law also codified the requirement that all tanks receive certified inspections. Rose’s bill would exempt some of the tanks located near sources of drinking water and make the owners or operators of the tanks responsible for self-inspecting and certifying the tanks at least annually.
“That’s a joke,” my father said. “I can tell you it won’t work. Any time you have self-regulating things like that, it won’t work.”
West Virginia already has one D+ in drinking water, according to the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, there were nearly 3,200 boil water warnings from January 1, 2025 to November 1, 2025. Many of these warnings were related to water main breaks.
Because our water systems are already so needy, we don’t have to worry about tank leaks in the drinking water supply. SB 641 would downgrade some “Level 1” tanks – those near drinking water distribution points that are most affected by stricter regulations – to “Level 2” tanks with fewer regulations. This includes tanks with a capacity of 50,000 gallons or less of brine water or other liquids generated by hydrocarbon activities.
Brine water is not just salt water when it is the product of oil and gas production. It may also contain metals or other contaminants that must be cleaned before being reintroduced into the water supply.
There have been no major leaks since 2014, but perhaps that is because current regulations are designed to protect our water. We still have counties without immaculate drinking water, and the legislature does nothing to assist them. What will they do if their relaxed regulations allow another source of drinking water to be poisoned?
