EXCLUSIVE: West Virginians, Flushed Your Water Tank, Yet? DON'T! Scientist Says

West Virginia government officials’ advice regarding its tainted water has placed people directly in harm’s way, according to an expert who spoke to Deborah Dupré with Before It’s News on Wednesday, providing information on the best way to prevent further human poisoning. 

“I have been encouraging everyone to avoid contact with liquids and vapors,” microbiologist Dr. Yuri Gorby said in an Unseen conversation.

No homeowner should be purging theirhot water tanks, according to Gorby.

“I would not allow any homeowner to purge their hot water tanks themselves,” he said.

Instead, the government, including Gov. Tomblin, instructed the public to flush the poison out of their home water systems, including their hot water tanks. Government officials provided details on how to do that. , both of which placed residents in harm’s way, according to Gorby and residents, who suffered neurological and other health problems in the process of doing as told.

“I realize that the longer those chemicals are in contact with plumbing and appliances, the more difficult it would be to clean those systems,” Gorby told Dupré. ”But in my opinion, flushing this waste stream - which was contained within the water distribution system - flushing this into the environmental was unwise.”

Gorby’s certain more poisons than already identified are in the area’s water system. He is eyeing frac chemicals, his colleagues have hinted, although he has not directly stated this to this reporter.

Today, one of Gorbys volunteer colleagues and former West Virginia gubernatorial candidate described chemicals that the team is eyeing , sating what the know so far is ”worse than imagined.” [See: EXCLUSIVE: 'Worse Than Feared' Poison In WV Leak Identified By Independent Scientist, Radiation Concern ]

The home system flushing method, that government officials publicly advised, is exposing people to those chemicals in their homes, he said. 

“And this is exactly what happened,” Gorby stated, adding, “we have no idea of the environmental consequences from releasing those chemicals into the environment.”

He has restated they have no real credible data, yet, on what chemicals have leaked into the environment.

Safest Protocol For Residents: Do Not Purge Hot Water Tanks

“I have been encouraging everyone to avoid contact with liquids and vapors,” Gorby said. “I would not allow any homeowner to purge their hot water tanks themselves.” 

He said that when West Virginia locals were volunteering to collect and send water samples to him, he advised them:

1. Avoid all contact.
2. Wear rubber gloves at the very least.
3. Don’t breathe the fumes.

An ecologist has demonstrated on a video released Wednesday what is happening in West Virginia homes when residents try flushing their water systems, as officials told them to do to remove poison that leaked from Freedom Industries chemical tank, reportedly on Jan. 9. 

Dr. Ben Stout is an ecologist from Wheeling Jesuit University, has fought against mountain top removal for decades, and recently took up the fight against fracking shale gas. 

On January 18, 2014, Stout was videoed taking water samples from a kitchen faucet and a hot water tank of in an un-flushed Charleston, West Virginia home.

He describes the 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol that leaked into the water and sticking to insides of home pipes  ”smells like cherry licorice, is light, oily and floats to the top of water.”

In the video, one can easily see the poison and sense its strength when it is released in the flush process.  

Gorby warns: “Nobody at home should try flushing their system on their own.”

Hot water is the worst, as it gives off more potent fumes, he says.

Home water purging should be done by professionals and this should have been provided by the government officials and the responsible company. Instead, people did as told, many became sick, and homes are not being monitored where fumes from flushing did sicken people. 

Over 100,000 homes and 300,000 people in nine West Virginia counties receive their water from the Elk River. All of them were using the poisoned water for at least a day, before advised it was tainted on Jan. 9.

Gorby said earlier this week that either the government should provide water for the 300,000 people in the poisoned zone or it should provide provisions for them to evacuate, at least temporarily until the poison is properly removed without further placing residents in harm’s way.

Monday, their governor gave little but a choice to West Virginians: Drink the water or don’t. 

So what are residents supposed to do to prevent further compromising their health and safety by staying in their poisoned homes? Gorby explained what he’d do.

“I would turn off the power to their hot water heater,” Gorby said. “I would turn off all faucets. I would use other water even for flushing toilets. If that is not an option, I would close the lid after using the toilet and before flushing. I would then flush and leave the room and leave the fan on.”

In summary, according to Dr. Gorby:

1. Avoid all contact with the water.
2. Wear rubber gloves at the very least.
3. Do not breathe the fumes.
4. Turn off the power to hot water heater.
5. Turn off all faucets.
6. Use other water even for flushing toilets.
7. If the latter is not an option, close the lid after using the toilet – before flushing.
8. Flush and leave the room, leaving the fan on. 

On Jan. 9, within hours of the declared federal disaster in West Virginia, military weapons of mass destruction response teams were on the scene, residents have learned this week.

Correction: Dr. Gorby is a microbiologist, not an organic chemist as this article originally stated. He and his team have no credible data on chemicals in the leak/

Video Credit: Dr. Ben Stout, YouTube

Photo Credit: Occupy the Hollers, Facebook