[00:00.00]We're joined now by the mayor of Charleston, W.Va., Danny Jones.
[00:04.05]Thanks for joining us.
[00:04.95]What is the latest that you're hearing now about the efforts to contain this spill?
[00:09.33]Well, we know basically what we were told at the press conference this morning.
[00:14.71]And we are at the mercy of the principals involved, mainly West Virginia American Water Company, 
[00:24.15]because they are probably going to be decides when they feel like it's safe for people to bathe and to drink the water.
[00:33.24]And you can't imagine what it's like to live in one of the nine counties affected in West Virginia, 
[00:40.27]or in my home town of Charleston, W.Va., which is the urban part of that area, 
[00:44.86]what it's like to not have any water to do anything except for flush commodes and put out fires.
[00:50.46]The governor says that he doesn't know the details. 
[00:52.89]The company in some ways hasn't said exactly how much has spilled out into the river. 
[00:57.06]When do they have any expectation of when they will know more?
[01:01.01]And that was my question this morning at the press conference.
[01:05.10]And there is no timeline. 
[01:06.96]There is no answer as to when the citizens of this valley and all these nine counties can affect this nightmare to end. 
[01:16.88]And it has devastated this area in a way which is indescribable. Everything is closing.
[01:23.89]And that means the Marriott Hotel. That means our Town Center Mall. 
[01:27.76]No restaurant is allowed to open because you can't legally open without water. 
[01:31.56]And it's been devastating for our area. People are in their homes. 
[01:36.39]The schools are closed. You're not supposed to take showers and certainly not supposed to drink the tap water.
[01:42.14]And we are distributing water out of a few of our fire stations, bottled water. 
[01:47.46]And the West Virginia American Water has had truckloads of water to come in to try to distribute water to citizens, so they will have something to drink.
[02:00.89]Now, we heard that there's almost a smell of black licorice either in the air or of the water. Have you smelled it? Have you tasted it?
[02:08.71]I smelled it yesterday, when a gentleman from the office across the street came over to my office to get me. 
[02:17.59]He knew me, and he took me across the street and I smelled it when I got outside. I had been inside for that afternoon.
[02:24.00]And then he -- I went up to his water fountain and then I tasted it. 
[02:29.76]And I took a big drink of it, and I knew that there was something very wrong. 
[02:33.62]And it wasn't much longer after that that the West Virginia Water Company and the governor and all those folks held a press conference. 
[02:42.93]It wasn't the governor's press conference.
[02:45.43]He was just happened to have been there, but was West Virginia American Water Company. 
[02:50.75]And they have nothing but bad news for these citizens, and with no end in sight.
[02:52.78]So have you heard of any of the possible health side effects? 
[02:57.24]Are there clinics or hospitals reporting any adverse affects to people having drank this water?
[03:02.39]No, we have not heard anything like that, and -- which is good news. 
[03:10.13]But it also means we really don't know what we're dealing with.
[03:12.65]If there are outbreaks of any kind of reaction to this, I have not been informed of it. 
[03:18.30]And I think, if it had happened in Charleston, I think I would have been informed of it. We're just told what not to do.
[03:22.95]So, what are the contingency plans going forward?
[03:26.41]I mean, now you know that you have this corporate citizen in your backyard. What kind of plans were there? 
[03:30.56]What kind of plans do you hope there are if something like this ever happens again?
[03:35.47]If you're talking about the chemical company, that company is not in the city of Charleston. 
[03:40.84]They are about a quarter-mile down the Elk River, which is outside of our city limits.
[03:49.76]We believe that they have three tanks up there. One of them leaked. 
[03:53.31]And the chemical went through the -- leaked through the wall and out into the Elk River. 
[03:57.80]We believe that is what happened. So I think that any chance of that happening again would be nil because of precautions that will be taken.
[04:09.03]But that doesn't help us out of the mess that we're in right now and all the questions about technicalities and about why weren't we notified when, 
[04:18.53]I will be glad to try to answer that. 
[04:21.09]But that doesn't -- we are preoccupied with getting back to normal lifestyle with water to bathe in and tap water to drink and to prepare food with.
[04:30.06]What do you want the -- what do you want the company to be able to do in the next day or two?
[04:33.79]I want West Virginia American Water to fix this. And I realize it's the chemical company's fault.
[04:40.73]But West Virginia Water, West Virginian American Water has 40,000 miles of line that they run water through. 
[04:50.75]And that -- that goes out to a lot of people. And we want them to take advantage of whatever technology is out there and fix this.
[04:59.66]And I believe that it must exist in this day and age that they can fix this and allow these people to get back to normal.
[05:10.03]All right, Mayor Danny Jones of Charleston, W.Va., thanks so much for your time.
[05:13.32]Thank you.