This crisis began when a chemical known as MCHM, used to clean impurities from coal, leaked from a storage tank owned by a company called Freedom Industries.
That solution was left to cool in intermediate storage tanks, and then the remaining mixture was dissolved in a combination of water and a chemical called tributyl phosphate.
And that turns out to be a serious problem, because the body’s glycogen storage tanks are pretty small, and converting carbs and sugars into glycogen takes a little while.
Officials now believe as many as 7500 gallons of a chemical used to clean coal leaked into the water supply from a one inch hole in the underground part of a storage tank.