CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The company responsible for the chemical spill in West Virginia moved its chemicals to a nearby plant that has already been cited for safety violations, including a backup containment wall with holes in it, and state officials may force the company to move the chemicals elsewhere.
Inspectors found five safety violations Monday at Freedom Industries’ storage facility in Nitro, about 10 miles from the spill site in Charleston. The spill contaminated the drinking water for 300,000 people, and about half of them were still waiting for officials to lift a ban on tap water.
According to a state Department of Environmental Protection report, inspectors found that the Nitro site’s last-resort containment wall had holes in it. The report described the site’s wall as ‘‘deteriorated or nonexistent.’’
The facility had no documentation of inspections of the Nitro site. Nor did it have proof of employee training over the past 10 years, the report said.