freedomed in 1986, industries produces chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries. site of the leak is dedicated to storage with 4 million gallons of space available. the site doesn't require a permit from the dep since freedom doesn't make products there. officials in from the facility was never inspected by the dep before the leak. the dep issued a cease operations order friday and federal authorities are investigating freedom. there. elk, take it from how you feel this fits into a larger pattern. >> yesterday, the department of them permanent protections issued to complaints against freedom industries -- department of them permanent protections issued two complaints against freedom industries. a wall that could have prevented it from leaking, but it was so full of cracks, the head of the dep said he would be concerned if that was the foundation of his house. that is how bad the concrete was. already we have seen two charges filed against freedom industries. they have no plan in place. there will be a big criminal investigation going on. the person heading it up is

lot of different moving parts and a lot of confusing situations here the man who purchased freedom industries just a few weeks back opens up an l.l.c. to fund freedom while they are in their bankruptcy. we spent most of the day talking to people in charleston, west virginia about their concerns with the water, and here is what we saw: it's been a week since toxic chemicals spilled into the elk river in west virginia. 300,000 people were under a strict do-not-use water ban, though means of the bans have been lifted. residents are krnld as to whether their water is safe. how long is it going to take to get the results back? >> five to 7 business days. jennifer kurus 9 months pregnant? >> we haven't been consuming the water in the house because it didn't taste right. it didn't smell right. >> she and her family are not drinking the water. after the centers for disease control issued a caution on wednesday for pregnant women, she was confused. >> we got the okay, the thumbs up that the water was safe on monday night so for 48 hours to go by and knowing that the public is consuming this water, tha

freedom industries.know that the company produces specialty chemicals for the mining, steel and cement industries, including the coal cleaning agent named 4 methylcyclohexane methanol that spilled into the river that can cause diarrhea and other health problems. after gallons of the stuff leaked from a breached tank into a river, residents began noticing a distinctive smell. >> one indicator of the contaminated water is the licorice odor of the water. >> just who is freedom industries? they say they were formed in 1986, though filings indicate it was founded in 1992. it has only existed in its current form for two weeks. after a complex merger with three other companies. >> thank you very much. >> this is the guy who has been speaking for the company. gary southern, identified as freedom industries' president. >> look, guys, it has been an extremely long day. i'm having a hard trouble talking at the moment. i would appreciate it if we could wrap this thing up. >> but freedom industries' website lists a d

bob, any reaction to the bankruptcy filings we got, we saw today from freedom industries? hris. my first thought is, don't give up hope, they'll probably reincorporate day after tomorrow as liberty industries or maybe eight rand industries. that seems to be the road we're going down. >> yeah, it's sort of amazing that you have the corporate industry of the company was already so complicated, the last time we had you on a few days ago, now it looks like it's going through another iteration to, you know, shed its liability. what about the water supply? what are people in west virginia, in that part of west virginia, being told? i'm hearing conflicting reports and what is the experience they're having of whether the water is safe or not? >> chris, there's no single answer to that. i'm seeing photographs on facebook of people with chemical burns on their legs, chemical burns on their hands. this after they've been told that the water was safe. nobody knows anything here. everybody's trying to run away from this issue, whether it's joe manchin trying to blame the cdc, representa

turns out freedom industries just realized there was something else in that leaking tank.mical was in the tank. the president of freedom industries decided to tell the state yesterday, 12 days into the spill, about there being a second chemical in that tank. the company had never listed this chemical on its chemical inventory that it had filed with the state. it never told any of the authorities involved in responding to the spill that this other chemical might be implicated. but yesterday at about 10:00 a.m., the head of emergency response for the state's department of environmental protection says just before the daily meeting that they have now about that leak to try to coordinate the response, just before that meeting at the leak site yesterday, the president of freedom industry pulled the state official aside and asked to speak with him privately. he then told the state official about this second chemical that was also in the tank and handed him data sheets on the material. the freedom industries president then told the state official, quote, i'm going to have a terri

. >> reporter: the chemical leaked out of fats belonging to freedom industries. customers noticed because it smelled strongly of black licorice. the chemical safety data sheet says warning, harmful if swallowed, causes skin and eye irritation. but west virginians were exposed to the chemical at very diluted levels, levels that have been going down. >> we don't know that the water's not safe, but i can't say it is safe. >> reporter: health officials say some 4 to 6 people were admitted to the hospital with problems related to the contamination, minor problems such as nausea and vomiting. friday the west virginia department of environmental protection issued a cease order to freedom industries telling them to stop all operations. the company issued a statement saying, our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further contaminati contamination. in the meantime, supplies of bottled water are running low and hundreds of thousands of west virginians just want to be able to use their taps again. >> it could be days. we

he sees chris has pointed out in order to file for bankruptcy freedom industries has to find another company to finance it not one but two companies stepped up to the plate money or funding l.l.c. and w. funding however it turns out that mouneer funding l.l.c. was also incorporated the same day that it offered to save freedom industries and guess what the company's officer is one j. clifford forrest the very man who bought freedom industries at the end of last year as for the funding that company is organized by the lawyer who also organized mountaineer funding l.l.c. and the sole listed number of that company is you guessed it now in your funding l.l.c. critics are now calling this colucci in freedom industries now needs to disclose its financial situation and come up with a reorganization plan however that plan could take months or even years to be put into effect so it looks as if the battle for west virginia's water supply isn't over yet in washington meghan lopez r.t. in an attempt to reorganize the company cnn's president jeff zucker has given pink slips to forty senior journal

. >>> west virginia giving freedom industries two hours to disclose all information about the chemical spill into the elk river. >>> and we take a look at homeschooling and how little to know regulations are causing concerns. >> world leaders are gathering in montreux, switzerland, they're trying to bring a deal to syria. a short time ago secretary of state john kerry was saying that bashar al-assad cannot remain the leader of syria. >> you cannot have peace. you cannot have stability. you cannot restore syria. you cannot save syria. from disintegration as long as bashar al-assad remains in power. >> those who are behind the acts of terrorists, terrorism in syria should choose between an arsonist or fireman. they cannot be both at the same time. >> and nick schifrin is in montreux, switzerland, tonight. tough talk from both sides of the controversy. >> reporter: yes, absolutely a chasm between both sides. but the goal from the u.s. point of view is the same, and that is to try to end the violence inside syria. ththey are convinced that the oy way to do that is to convince assad that he

freedom industries has been tightlipped.s the company's president gave a news conference on the leak friday he couldn't end it quickly enough. today "charleston daily mail" is reporting it's no wonder the spill happened because the company had a number of violations but they were not found until after the fact. bringing in the roerter on these violations. you've gotten a look at the report from the state department of environmental protection on violations at the freedom industries facility. what did they find? >> reporter: that's right, jake. actually, they found out that the freedom industries had to move the chemical, the rest of the chemical that was on the site, moved it to another location, and the dep went in to check that location and found five violations including that they had no secondary containment, kind of the emergency barrier to prevent a leakage from getting off of a property. >> how effective are regulators in west virginia? the state has a reputation for basically handling over control to industry. obviou

that man was gary southern, the president of freedom industries., i'm joined by david gutman, a reporter for the charleston gazette. thanks for joining me this morning. >> thank you, carol. >> were you at that press conference? >> yes, i was. it was an odd press conference. that's actually the last we've heard publicly from freedom industries. >> this man seems toe callus. is that the right descriptor? >> i'm sorry, say that again, please. >> did he seem to really understand what a massive problem his company created for the citizens of west virginia. >> i do think he did understand. i'm not sure. i think he was totally frenzied and in a little over his head. the funny thing was, that prep conference was set up by a crisis p.r. firm they had just hired that day. two days later on sunday morning, charles ryan dropped freedom industries as a client and would give no explanation as to why they would no longer represent freedom industries. >> that's fascinating. why haven't we heard more from this company do you think? >> reporter: i'm not entirely sur

there could be a vote as soon as tomorrow as to whether they file lawsuit against freedom industries. in the meantime just off the phone with county commissioner, he told us that they have distributed over 10 million bottles of water in the past week and they could not be more happy with the response from fema, the national guard and the federal government. but also people here are not happy with the water system still, most people not drinking the water out of the taps, and there is still a lot of concern on the safety. >> in west virginia roadside water distribution sites dot the highways and county roads. >> well, some are still afraid to actually drink the water. >> over the past 11 days nearly 300,000 people have lived through the unprecedented do not use order from west virginia american water. but the problems are not over yet. >> we're still getting complaints from various residents in and out of the area that has come through that they're still smelling the chemical in the water stream. >> even as communities get thal clear there is little faith among the population. >> it's

they found out about the pph when they received a document from freedom industries. abouthis new surprise, randy hoffman, the secretary of west virginia's department of environmental protection. >> according to the folks from freedom who revealed this to us yesterday, they thought they had stopped mixing that material and recently discovered it was in the tank with the mchhm. >> reporter: the water process likely filtered out the chemical but many residents aren't convinced they're getting the truth from the government or the state. >> the team has not withheld any information. we have not manipulated any information. we're making as much available as much as we can. >> reporter: now serious questions are mounting. when they knew about the chemical and why it took so long to notify the state. >> this causes it to take a huge hit. >> they're fully responsible, freedom industries because it was their site, their watch, their tanks. >> reporter: we have repeatedly reached out to freedom industry to ask them about the spill itself, the lawsuits against them, but they say

freedom industries, the company blamed for the spill has declared bankruptcy. robert ray is in west virginia with new information about the bankruptcy filing. >> you can see over my shoulder those are the tanks of freedom industry. chemicals came out of some of those into elk river, affecting 300,000 people in west virginia, a week or so ago. on friday, freedom industries filed for bankruptcy. there's more information. on december 31st. company was bought by j clip ard forest. yesterday a new company was opened by j clip ard forest, calledman an ear funding llc, created to provide funding to freedom during the bankruptcy loan. we believe that that company was opened up so that j clip ard forest could shield away major claims and liabilities, lawsuits and protect the $20 million purchase. the question is as to why would someone purchase a company with so much massive debt. >> let's tip down this. they owe $2.4 million to the irs. they owe 3.6 million and have 200 creditors. they owe over $90,000 in property taxes. the amount of questions around the bankruptcy an

freedom industries as well as the west virginia american water company now i have the opportunity to speak with a lawyer with the firm that actually filed the first lawsuit on behalf of local businesses in charleston here's part of my interview with attorney john many. the lawsuit that we have filed we were the first ones to file and not county which is where the skill this bill will occur we are seeking class action status you can report this innocence this is that or suffer the loss of those words or of the forced government shutdown i was really it was with the smaller business in mind of some of the service providers restaurants one of the bar umbrella and the other one's a restaurant a little rest but as word got out what's going on order it that it has exactly been contacted by mr otel chain. various and sundry other businesses listed out from restaurants and service providers now that we have salons and to foreigners and this really all all going to keep that require water operate the business wise they've been a great economic impact across west virginia in the surrounding ar

. >> you can see over my shoulder the tanks holding the chemicals from freedom industries. what happened affected 300,000 and the water supply in west virginia. we spent most of saturday talking to residents about their concerns, and did independent testing on the water. here is what we found out. it's been a week since 7500 gallons of toxic chemicals used to clean coal spilled into the elk river. many residents are concerned as to whether their water is safe. >> inside the cooler are testing materials for the water in this woman's house. how long will it take to get the results back. >> five to seven business days. >> jennifer youse is nine moths pregnant. >> we haven't consumed the water in the house. it didn't taste or smell right. >> she and her family are not drinking the water. after the center for disease control issued the warning on wednesday, she was confused. >> we got the thumbs up that the water was safe on monday night. so for 48 hours to go by, and knowing that the public is consuming the water, it's really concerning. >> with little data or scientific study

when did freedom industries report the spill? >> i'm sorry, i couldn't hear you. >> when did freedom industries report the spill? >> well, we're still going through getting the details in terms of all the facts. what we're doing as part of our investigation is we're trying to identify exactly what happened, the timeline of what happened, why it happened, and then take steps to ensure that it never happens again. one of the things that we're looking at is we're trying to make sure that there are, if there are gaps in regulations we certainly want to address them. >> the reason i'm asking you is people seem to notice this odor and then they called in authorities and then authorities alerted freedom industries and then freedom industries finally got around to reporting there was a leak, and this is another thing that's flying around out there. that when freedom industries realized it had a leak there were no containment measures in place. do you know anything about that? >> well, i think this is part of the ongoing review that we're

freedom industry owners has created a new company to bail freedom out. robert ray has more now from charleston. >> you can see over my shoulder the tanks holding the chemicals that went into the elk river that is freedom industry and what happened in the past week affected 3,000 people and the water supply here in virginia. we spent most of our saturday talking to residents about their concern over the water supply and did our own independent defendanting on the water. here is what we found out. >> it has been a week since 7500 gallons of toxic chemicals used to clean coal spilled into the elk river in west virginia. 300,000 people were under a strict do not use water ban. though many of the bans have been lifted, residents are concerned as to whether the water is safe. >> inside this cooler are testing materials for the water in this woman's house. how long is it going to take to get the results back? >> five toiseach business days. >> jennifer is nine months pregnant. >> we haven't been consuming the water in the house just because it didn't taste righ

i know you mentioned freedom industries. but what more do we know? >> reporter: the president of freedom industries gave a brief news conference and he did apologize to everyone. he wasn't able to answer questions as to how or why this leak happened. he wasn't also -- >> we lost jonathan martin, live from charleston, west virginia. >>> today is the 50th anniversary of the surgeon general's first ever report of smoking and health risks. >> shed new light on the dangers of snowing in 1964 and since, changed american culture forever. the number of adults who smoke has been cut in half. our let'sa barnard is live in davis, california, the first county in the u.s. to ban out door smoking in 1975. tell us about this agreement where tobacco companies put out corrective statements about their history of lying when it comes to smoking. >> if the agreement is approved, tobacco companies would have to take out full-page ads as well as online ads or t.v. spots in prime time on the three major networks issuing so-called corrective statements in which they discuss

freedom industries declined to comment. an investigation may be prompting j-p morgan to drop out of a business deal in china. the bank is reportedly backing away from involvement in the i- p-o of a hong kong chemical company due to questions regarding j-p morgan's hiring practices in china. back in august, an investigation was launched into whether the bank was responsible for inking deals in exchange for hiring employees related to powerful business figures. its already withdrawn from one i-p-o. j-p morgan has declined to comment on the move. fiat's acquisition of chysler is officially a done deal.the italian automaker has paid 1.7 billion dollars to the uaw to buy the remaining stake of the car company. its partially owned chyrsler since 2009, when it was forced into bankrputcy protection. the very popular videogame 'candy crush' has successfully trademarked the word candy. videogame maker king says it has done so, to protect the game from "persistent intellectual property infringements." the game has been downloaded half

freedom industries, the company responsible, waited until tuesday of this week to tell state and federalors that, oh, by the way, there was a second chemical involved in the spill. freedom hasn't revealed exactly what the chemical makeup it, saying it is propriety. except with chemicals and not the kind that make you crave chicken. the cdc does not believe that it poses a health threat at this point. but by not fully disclosing the nature of the leak in the first place, they violated the law. whether the company will be held accountable is another question. the company has filed bankruptcy protection. that's not good for plaintiffs. at least two dozen lawsuits have been filed so far. let's welcome back danny jones, the mayor of west virginia. what do you know about this newly released chemical spill? >> i believe that as long as the water in the systems in our homes and in our businesses, as long as they have been flushed properly, the new water coming in is clean. i believe that. the new chemical that has come out, i'm not a chemist but i know that i have been told that it's a solid. it

, based on the court documents, the man identified by "the washington post" as the owner of freedom industries, cliff forrest, is the same man who started a new company with the capacity to secure a big chunk of freedom industry's assets while sidestepping much of its legal liability. even though these two companies are both run by someone named clifford forrest, a certified and a legal filing, the terms of this agreement were negotiated, quote, at arm's length. all this got us wanting to learn a little bit more about cliff forrest, so we spent some time looking into the man identified as freedom industries owner. the first thing you need to know is that he's a coal magnate. he owns rose bud mining company, which has more than 1,200 employees and is among the largest coal producers in ohio and pennsylvania, which makes him the apparent owner, both of a coal company, and a company that deals in chemicals used by the coal industry. and keep that connection in mind when you hear folks like west virginia governor, earl ray tomlin, try to put distance between big coal and the big spill. >> let me m

what are you hearing about this company, freedom industries? >> reporter: good evening, tony, from a snowy charleston, west virginia, we know this, that earlier today freedom industries held a meeting with their folks here in charleston. they decided to file for bankruptcy. clearly they've probably been talking about this all week. but let me give you details from the paperwork earlier today. this is what we know. they owe $2.4 million to the irs. freedom also owes about $3.6 million to its top 20 creditors. on top of that they owe over 90,000 in property taxes to the county here. then you put the chemical spill last week and you have over two dozen lawsuits that have been filed against the firm, and you have a recipe for disaster. we also know this, on decembe december 31st a company new closed and purchasing this company freedom industries, now the soul owner of freedom industries owns this company, and so we're wondering where that stands, how will that affect the bankruptcy proceedings going ahead, and how will that effect all the lawsuit f

this problem was caused by freedom industries. for mining and steel industries. an estimated 7500 gallons leaked from its charleston facility right into the elk river. state environment officials ordered to move the chemicals to another facility. one issue with that, that plant already has safety violations, including an emergency containment wall that has holes in it. let's bring in danny jones. mr. mayor, thank you so much for joining us. let's start with the safety issue first. if the cdc is concerned about pregnant women drinking water, even out of an abundance of caution, why should anyone feel safe drinking it? >> well, to me it tastes very good now, finally. and we have made a lot of progress on getting water out into the nine counties and i understand we are even over half what you stated in your lead. but i'm certainly not smarter than the doctors and i wonder if you tested all of the waters in this country, how much of it would be safe. this has been devastating for this area. these nine counties and four my city. and we

chemical now when it comes to the residents and how they're responding most of them are not mad at freedom industries most of them are not mad at the coal industry most of them are not asking for more regulation they're mad at the government because there isn't an emergency water source available to them but you have to understand coal industry in west virginia is a major industry industry its supplies direct jobs for twenty thousand people and indirect jobs for a number seventy thousand people is a six billion dollar industry in that state so obviously these people are really depended on the coal industry and they're going to support it no matter what it what happens and you know i can't help but question what does this incident say about the kind of born or ability of the entire. u.s. water supply here it's very vulnerable that's what it says honestly most states are not any more or less prepared than west virginia then charleston was was at the moment and it says that in an emergency crisis you have to clean departments like the department of homeland security and fema and the national guard and a

now freedom industries is a company that produces chemical material for the cement steel and mining industries what you see behind me on massive storage tanks each of them can hold thirty five thousand gallons of the chemical that they are producing here right beyond those storage tanks is the elk river or one of those stores tanks or at least chemicals into the river that was taken downstream to a local water treatment facility freedom industries didn't report the leak until thursday morning when residents complained of a strong licorice smell in the air that odor was seventy five hundred gallons of a chemical known as for meth the psycho hexane methanol or him c h m for short it's a foaming agent used to clean coal before it goes to the market before the spill little was known about the effects of him c.h.m. and there was no way to test for it in the air or water nor its effects on humans now investigators are continually testing the water waiting for the m.c.h. in levels to get down below the e.p.a.'s recommended one part per million before they flush the system and give residents

. >>> blamed for a toxic spill in west virginia, freedom industries was cited at another facility. thousands of gallons of chemicals leaked into the elk river, leaving thousands of people without water. >>> sex abuse by the catholic church, a committee set up by the pope will meet with the united nations tomorrow. headlines, i'm john siegenthaler, i'll see you back here 11:00 eastern, 8:00 pacific time, "america tonight" with joie chen is next, you can always get the latest on aljazeera.com. >> on "america tonight": losing ground. more of louisiana's bayou community swallowed whole. why the hole is from another crisis hundreds of miles away. >> not a lot of us left here now. >> also, still troubled waters, the taps are on but there are new signs of danger. should more folks downstream be worried about west virginia's toxic wash? >> the industry is not regulated and it happened because these were old holding tanks which were not properly maintained. >> and faith in flux. the catholic church faces new reports, what a change in leadership may bring. >> good evening i'm joie chen. than

2013 a company called chem stream holdings took over freedom, they now own 100% of the company freedom industries. that may complicate the situation a little bit. we reached out to a spokesperson for freedom, she decided she didn't want to give us any comment on the bankruptcy proceeding today but she did tell us they are working hard to remedy, quote unquote, the situation here in west virginia john. >> this is not surprising we do feel there are lingering concerns about whether the water is safe to drink right? >> absolutely. we talked to several doctors, one of them in the hospital behind me, she doesn't think the water in the elk river ask safe at all. they said at the centers for disease control, women who are pregnant should not be drinking in the water or bathings in the water. also been talking to the cdc he thinks that the level of warning should be increased to children under the age of 5 because as he said you know there's not really a whole lot of data or scientific evidence or testing that's been done. in fact some of the only testing that's been done on the chemical that went down t

>> a company called freedom industries. >> jon: are you (bleep) kidding me? [laughter] of course. why not? why not in reality have it named the same as it would be in the sat tearsatirical hbo movie about a toxic chemical company. a british person has to appear and apologize for it whether it's bp to the gulf or peers morgan leaving a pool party. you know what you did (bleep). freedom industries gary southern. >> this incident is extremely unfortunate, unanticipated and we are very, very sorry for the disruption to everybody's daily life that this he is dent has caused. >> jon: on the plus side, look how much easier it is to fish now. [ laughter ] you just scoop! [laughter] for more we go to jason jones live tonight in west virginia's kanawha county. thank you for joining us. please, you can if you want. i don't care. [cheers and applause] jason five days now without water. the people of west virginia must be pretty -- >> thirsty, jon. they are thirsty and also filthy. thirsty and filthy but most of all angry so i have to say we were warned this was coming. >> an aggressor nation

chemical now when it comes to the residents and how they're responding most of them are not mad at freedom industries most of them are not mad at the coal industry most of them are not asking for more regulation they're mad at the government because there isn't an emergency water source available to them but you have to understand coal industry in west virginia is a major industry industry it supplies direct jobs for twenty thousand people and indirect jobs for a number of seventy thousand people is a six billion dollar industry in that state so obviously these people are really depended on the coal industry and they're going to support it no matter what it what happens and you know i can't help but question what does this incident say about the kind of born or ability of the entire. u.s. water supply here it's very vulnerable that's what it says honestly most states are not any more or less prepared in west virginia then charleston was was at the moment and it says that in an emergency crisis you have to clean departments like the department of homeland security and fema and the national guard and a

water is how serious the problem is and how they can go ahead and fix it now the president of freedom industries the company that actually leaked those chemicals put out a statement just a little bit ago today and i want to read part of it it says quote we have been working with local federal and safety and environmental entities including the coast guard army corps of engineers and homeland security and are following all necessary steps to fix the issue our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further contamination now the same i went on to say that the company doesn't know how the leak happened in the first place it also doesn't know exactly how much of the chemical was released now this chemical is a foam agent used in the coal process coal of course is a major industry in west virginia and this chemical is actually used right before the coal goes to market in order to clean it something else that authorities don't know at the moment is a possible hazard that this chemical has on the fumin body so far no one has been. ordered as experiencin

it's a chemical used in the coal manufacturing process freedom industries has not spoken with the media nor a least a press statement since the press conference on friday evening take a look at this map as of tuesday morning thirty five percent of customers had their water working again represented by all the areas you see here in blue and all of this area you see here in red is where the ban is still in place so quite a few people are still dealing with the aftermath of this chemical crisis particularly those people in more rural less affluent neighborhoods authorities are now turning their attention to the investigation into how this bill actually happened in the first place an independent federal agency known as the u.s. chemical safety board has deployed a team to the area to investigate the spill and has said this quote our goal is to find out what happened to allow a leak of such a magnitude to occur and to assure that the proper safeguards are in place to prevent a similar incident from occurring. so now that the situation is starting to finally calm down let's take a look at som

responsible for poisoning an entire city's water supply in west virginia is in trouble yet again freedom industries says its approach is this just a way to avoid dealing with dozens of lawsuits more on that later in the show. it's monday january twentieth four pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you're watching r.t. america well ever since former contractor edward snowden leaked one point seven million classified documents to the world detailing the n.s.a. has internal structure president obama has been walking the fine line of political fallout during a speech at the department of justice last week the president finally addressed the issue and announce sweeping reforms to the way the national security agency collects digital information the changes and put it more oversight by the executive branch reworking national security letters that force private companies to hand over customer information to the n.s.a. and an end to section two fifteen of the patriot act which allows for bulk collection of metadata now some say that the president's reforms went too far others say that they didn't go f

residents and surrounding counties has been freedom industries' first priority. i want to bring in our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen in charleston. elizabeth, what sort of health problems could this chemical potentially cause? >> reporter: so jake, if you happen to touch or swallow this chemical in its pure form, it's pretty likely that you would get sick. it's harmful if swallowed and an irritant to skin and eyes. it's obviously been diluted. it went into the elk river and then into the water supply. we don't know what happens when it's diluted. one would think it would be far, far less harmful. in fact, we've had no reports from any hospitals of any illnesses related to the leak and we've been calling them all day. jake? >> so far no one has been sick and we are thankful for that. there are frustrating consequences. what exactly are those? >> reporter: for example, restaurants are closed down. many hotels are closing down. the hotel i was supposed to stay at is no longer in service. and this part is even worse. many hospitals are canceling electi

he's the president of freedom industries. there was a leak. 300,000 people are now directly affected in the charleston, west virginia area. they can't drink water, take a bath, use that water to cook at least for the time being. and it's obviously a very, very serious situation. you heard the president under enormous stress right there but as one of the reporters pointed out, a lot of people are under more stress because they don't have access to water. maybe they have some bottled water you saw him drinking bottled water but they don't have access to tap water at least for now. elizabeth cohen is there in charleston, west virginia. this is a painful story for so many people because we just take water for granted but here in west virginia, because of this chemical leak at this plant, freedom industries, these folks can't even take a shower or take a bath. >> reporter: i know. it really is a terrible situation and you think of all of the things that you use water for and, of course, you think about how you use it in your own h

what are you hearing about this company, freedom industries? >> reporter: freedom industries founded in 1986 are in deep trouble. they have filed for bankruptcy. let me tick down some of the numbers we have gotten from the actual filing. they owe $2.4 million to the irs. they have $90,000 in debt and property taxes to the county here they owe $3.66 million to its tom 20 creditors and in the past week since the chemical spill, they have over 2 dozen lawsuits filed against them. so a week later, after the accidents on the river that has caused about 300,000 people for some time to not be able to drink the water, bathe in the water, they filed bankruptcy today we talked to a speaks person earlier where she con confirmed and we called the company's head squares where a somber person answered the phone and said we have filed for bankruptcy. >> they said they will not answer any other questions. they have no comment. she said that repeatedlyly. so very little information we can get from the company as far as how they are going to move forward. we als

thousands of gallons of for meth the cycle hexane methanol spilling into the elk river from freedom industries but water ban has been lifted for about seventy percent of the three hundred thousand residents in the area but even if the pregnant women fall within that category they are still encouraged not to drink the water from the system because there might be trace amounts of the chemical left in it now the problem started near the elk river right here and then it connects to the ohio river which travels south to kentucky and beyond west virginia investigators insist that the levels of m. c.h.m. will be so diluted by the time that it reaches all of those states that the water will be safe but northern kentucky water district authorities and the greater cincinnati waterworks have closed their water intakes on the ohio river just as a precaution problems continue to plague freedom industries as a company tries to clean up the chemical spill and seem of inspectors for the state department of environmental protection cited the company for fine but violations at the secondary storage facility whe