Honey May speaks during the “People’s Public Hearing” against Senate Bill 592 on Monday, March 17, 2025, outside the West Virginia House chamber in Charleston, W.Va. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
London Donahoe, a sophomore at Huntington High School, said he was 6 years old when the 2014 Elk River chemical leak unfolded in central West Virginia. That January, 4-methylcychohexanemethanol (MCHM) — a chemical used in processing coal — leaked from an aboveground storage tank owned by Freedom Industries into the Elk River, contaminating the drinking water for about 300,000 people in nine counties.
The West Virginia Legislature was convened for its regular session at the time of the spill, though took a few days off as an immediate response as efforts were underway. When they returned — and in direct response to the chemical leak — lawmakers unanimously passed Senate Bill 373, which established the Aboveground Storage Tank Act and implemented myriad other water protection measures to, hopefully, prevent future disasters.
Donahoe doesn’t remember much from that time. He does know one thing, though: because of that action by the Legislature, he was able to grow up under policies that ultimately meant he was healthier and better protected from potential disasters.
But now, 11 years after the chemical leak, lawmakers are seriously considering a bill that would cut back on the mitigation efforts that were implemented in its wake.
Senate Bill 592 has already passed the Senate and is now pending consideration in the House Energy and Public Works Committee. Under the proposed legislation, more than 1,000 oil, gas and coal tanks nearest to drinking water intakes — the same tanks that were responsible for the 2014 chemical leak — would be exempt from mandated third party inspections that currently ensure they aren’t at risk of leaking.
On Monday, Donahoe was one of 13 residents who participated in an unofficial public hearing hosted by multiple progressive and environmental organizations speaking out against SB 592 during Environmental Day at the Capitol.
“History makes it clear: the protections put in place [in 2014] were not just necessary — they were life saving,” Donahoe told those in attendance. “Now, the Legislature is threatening to undo these protections and put everyone in this room at risk. Water should be a basic human right, yet SB 592 prioritizes industry lobbyists and the wealthy elite over the health and safety of West Virginians … we cannot allow that.”
Other speakers against the legislation included environmental activists who have returned to the Capitol year after year to try and ensure the protections put in place 11 years ago remain there. Honey May, an environmental organizer who became involved in the work due to the 2014 water crisis, said it’s impossible to ignore how ingrained coal, oil and natural gas industry lobbyists have become in the West Virginia Legislature.
May said it’s difficult not to feel left out of the process when industry-backed and -created bills like SB 592 begin to circulate. Year after year, she’s helped get people connected with their lawmakers or bussed to the Capitol to speak out against such bills. She’s seen the rotunda filled with people concerned about their environmental health and safety. She knows how that kind of outpouring can affect legislators’ votes.
But, she said, it shouldn’t have to take that kind of effort for those in power to listen to their constituents’ concerns and see common sense in measures that exist to protect them. This is especially relevant now, May said, as this is the first legislative session without a public hearing process for the full House. The hearing on Monday — dubbed “the People’s Public Hearing” by organizers — served as an alternative kind of hearing than those currently held in committees.
“Now, you have to create your own public hearing. We have to create our own ways of reaching our legislators, because they’ve determined that they just don’t have the time to hear from us … and [now] they think we can do whatever they want, but we say, ‘no’,” May said. “We’re going to stand here. We’re going to tell you how we feel, and it’s not radical; it’s clean drinking water. We all drink it, so please contact your legislators. It’s the only thing that works. The people’s power is the only thing that keeps the relentless pursuit of profits at bay.”
Other speakers on Monday included more people who remember the 2014 chemical spill all too well. Some said they were still hesitant to drink the region’s tap water. Others remembered how difficult and frustrating it was to get information as the event unfolded.
Every speaker shared the fears they hold about something like that happening again and their disappointment in seeing protections to stop that rolled back.
While too young to remember much from the events in 2014 himself, Donahoe and his Huntington High classmate Kaili Anderson have started their own organizing around protecting West Virginia’s environment and they want the state’s lawmakers to listen.
Both serve as officers of their school’s Sunrise Movement student hub, a local chapter of a national organization built around young people fighting and organizing against the ongoing climate crisis.
Both Anderson and Donahoe said they’re frustrated with the state Legislature’s focus on social issues that seek to harm already marginalized people while lawmakers seem to ignore multiple ongoing crises — undrinkable water, the drug and overdose epidemic and poverty, among many others — and leave the most vulnerable in the state without support or help.
Young people, Anderson said, aren’t being involved in conversations about the state’s priorities. If they were, she continued, those priorities would certainly change and more young people would be looking toward a future in the state instead of one where they feel they have to leave it behind.
“If young people had a seat at the table, they’d be more likely to stay here, especially if they were being listened to,” Donahoe said. “Instead we hear all this focus feeding into culture wars, attacking trans people and that’s not helping anyone … Our voice and perspectives are being ignored and we need to become a force to push elected officials and remind them that we are here and our voices matter.”
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