This week the WV Attorney General Office (WVAGO) released their investigation report on the 2014 Elk River Chemical spill. This incident caused a mandatory Do-Not-Use (Water) order to be issued and more than 300,000 residents and countless businesses in a nine-county radius were without potable water for nine (9) days. This incident has now been tied to the Mechanical Integrity of several tanks (and their secondary containment) that held crude methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM). The report that follows is a summary of the WVAGO findings that resulted from the investigation into the incident. Significantly, the report details the causes of the leak at the tank farm and documents how years of neglect and deteriorating conditions were overlooked and ignored by facility management team(s). Among the most disturbing findings of the investigation was that employees and outside consultants warned of a potentially catastrophic incident due to poor tank conditions and design problems for years, and in some cases offered solutions. In March 2010, an employee issued an Idea Form memo highlighting structural problems at the facility and provided options to correct the problem. Here is a summary of the findings and a copy of the full AG’s report. This is a MUST READ for professional involved in Process Safety and Mechanical Integrity at their workplaces…