The Ohio National Guard’s 52nd Civil Support Team (CST) recently served in response to the mid-January water contamination incident in the Charleston, W.Va., area. Seven members of the 52nd CST worked around the clock drawing water samples from across the Kanawha Valley to determine levels of contamination remaining in local water supply.
The incident affected 5,000 customers, many of them large commercial users, who were told they could start flushing out their pipes after thousands of gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol poured out of from a storage facility on the nearby Elk River.
Ohio Guard members are worked alongside CSTs from West Virginia, Tennessee and the District of Columbia, as well as other elements of the West Virginia National Guard, civilian chemists and West Virginia American Water employees.
About 535 Airmen and Soldiers worked to ease the crisis.
Sampling teams traveled to multiple locations throughout the nine impacted counties in southwestern West Virginia.
“The members of the 52nd CST have been instrumental in providing technical assistance in the midst of this unfortunate incident,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Suver, 52nd CST commander. “Our laboratory personnel have received countless hours of technical training to effectively respond to situations such as this one. Currently, we’re working with several other laboratories to determine the amount of a certain chemical that spilled into the water supply, and when the water will be safe to be consumed by the citizens in West Virginia’s affected areas.”
Ohio National Guard’s 52nd CST capabilities focus on response to to unknown Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive (CBRNE) or natural disaster incident sites by assessing current and projected consequences, identifying CBRNE agents/substances, advising on response measures and assisting with appropriate requests for state and federal support.
