The president of West Virginia American Water stated that his company was not aware of a treatment to remove the chemical from its system.
[22] Because of this, West Virginia American Water began flushing miles of lines within its Charleston area water system, although as of January 11, there was no timetable as to when its system would be safe for area residents to use.
[16][22] West Virginia American Water's engineers began adding additional carbon and other chemicals to speed the treatment process and move the contaminated water out of its water distribution system.
[16]
Michael Dorsey, Chief of the DEP's Homeland Security and Emergency Response division stated that tests conducted on water samples taken on the night of January 9–10 showed the concentration of MCHM had decreased from 2 parts per million to 1.7 parts per million.
[8][29] That finding remained above the 1 part per million recommended by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "acceptable."
[8][29] The West Virginia National Guard continued to test the water every hour
[8][18] and its teams worked overnight between January 9 and January 10 to perform tests and report results on both inflow and outflow samples of the Elk River's water.
[8] Each test took approximately 46 minutes.
[8] Tests conducted over the weekend of January 11–12 at four locations indicated a safe amount below 1 part per million of the chemical.
[24] Despite this, officials continued testing throughout the water system's distribution area into January 13 before ending the system-wide "no use" advisory.
[24]
