SCURRY, Texas — Officials say a previously unknown black substance in a Scurry-area creek has been identified as non-toxic soybean ink and cleanup efforts are underway for an approximate 1.5-mile span of contamination.
On Wednesday, December 18, 2018, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office was notified of a possible water contamination in the creek located in the 14000 block of County Road 4060 near Scurry, Texas, according to Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jolie Stewart.
Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office deputies, who are assigned to the Environmental Enforcement Division, water in the creek was black and unnatural and traced the source to property upstream where 19 300-gallon containers of black liquid were discovered.
Deputies noted during the initial investigation that the ground appeared to be saturated with the black liquid and was contaminating the water in the nearby creek.
The investigation prompted officials from the Kaufman County Office of Emergency Management, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to respond to the scene.
"The contamination was contained and testing of the black liquid was completed by TCEQ," stated Stewart.
"The tests revealed the liquid to be a non-toxic soybean ink that is used in several areas of manufacturing."
Stewart says the property owner has been cooperative during the investigation and will be responsible for the paying the environmental clean-up company which will use booms placed in the water for filtration and the removal of the saturated soil.
“After testing conducted by the TCEQ and Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, I feel confident there is no danger to the public or the environment," stated Kaufman County Sheriff Bryan Beavers.
"We are glad citizens reached out to us and encourage anyone with concerns to notify us.” No criminal charges will be filed, according to Stewart.

MINGO COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A rising creek washed away a bridge and 200 feet of water pipes, leaving 500 customers without water.
Police tell WSAZ heavy debris underneath a bridge in the Lenore area blocked water from passing underneath, causing the water to rush up and around the bridge.
The bridge washed away Sunday night.
Rushing waters also carried away water pipes.
Police said that a boil water advisory is in effect Sunday night for the area of East Kermit all the way to western Lenore and the town of Nagatuck.
Police also said that classes for Tug Valley High School, Lenore K-8, and the Kermit Area School have been cancelled Monday due to no water.
There will be water distribution centers at the Kermit Fire Department, the Lenore Fire Department, and the Williamson Fire Department Monday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Police said that customers can expect to be without water at least through Monday.
Officials said getting to the other side of the creek to repair the pipes is difficult because the bridge has been destroyed.
Keep checking WSAZ.com and the WSAZ app for any updates.

Based on data from the watershed watchdog’s stream monitoring program in Hunterdon, Somerset and Morris counties, local waterways got a “C” grade on the 2018 water quality report card.
When rain falls onto surfaces impervious to water, it carries contaminants into storm drains and then into streams, including road salt and motor oil from roadways, and fertilizers, pesticides and animal waste from farms and homes.
Testing the waters Cindy Ehrenclou, executive director of Raritan Headwaters, said compiling the annual stream quality report card is one way the nonprofit works to educate local residents about issues affecting their water quality.
The upper Raritan River watershed includes the North and South Branches of the Raritan, and numerous tributary rivers and streams.
Every year in June, RHA staff members and volunteer citizen scientists conduct biological monitoring at 64 stream sites in the watershed.
Certain macroinvertebrates are very sensitive to pollution, making their presence an indicator of good stream health.
In addition to biological monitoring, Raritan Headwaters also conducts chemical, bacterial and habitat monitoring.
Stream sites ranked good include most of the North Branch from Mendham to the confluence of the South Branch in Branchburg.
Also rated good were several locations along the South Branch and its tributaries that were not rated excellent.
Other sites ranked fair include sections of the North Branch near Natirar Park in Peapack-Gladstone, the Spruce Run in Union Township, the Beaver Brook in Clinton Township, the Rockaway Creek in Readington Township, the Cold Brook in Tewksbury Township, and the Middle Brook in Bedminster.

Plans to dump up to 15m tonnes of salt and other waste near a creek in drought-stricken Queensland carry a “considerable” risk of water contamination, a new study has found.
Approved plans to expand a dump near the town of Chinchilla allow salt waste from coal seam gas operations to be stored fewer than 100 metres from Stockyard Creek, in the headwaters of the Murray-Darling Basin.
How can you force a company to manage beyond the lifespan of the people who run the company?
Stuart Khan, an environmental engineering professor at the University of New South Wales, has completed a study for the NSW Environmental Defender’s Office that concludes there is considerable risk of water contamination.
The responsibility for managing these risks over the long term will likely be inherited by future generations.” Khan told Guardian Australia salt “does not biodegrade in the environment and has an infinite environmental residence time”.
He said the stockpile in close proximity to Stockyard Creek would “need a management plan that runs for centuries”.
“How can you force a company to manage beyond the lifespan of the people who run the company?” he said.
Queensland cotton farmer charged with $20m Murray-Darling plan fraud Read more The company that runs the dump, We Kando, has not yet sought an assessment under the EPBC act.
Guardian Australia understands the federal Department of Environment and Energy has recently written to the company “to ensure they were aware of their obligations”.
The Lock the Gate Alliance argues the plan meets the “water trigger” that requires assessment of mining or coal seam gas developments, including associated waste management, likely to have a significant impact on a water resource.

Contamination from banned chemicals in firefighting foam at levels above safe drinking water guidelines has been found in streams around Palmerston North airport.
Photo: 123RF Seven surface water samples have all tested above the guidelines for the [www.pncc.govt.nz/pfas banned chemical PFOS.]
Streams around Palmerston North airport are contaminated with firefighting foam chemicals at between three and 12 times the safe drinking water guidelines.
A group with representatives from Palmerston North Airport, Horizons Regional Council, Palmerston North City Council, and MidCentral DHB Public Health Services has been set up to handle the PFOS contamination.
The airport was working on a disposal plan of PFOS foam, which would be replaced with fluorine-free firefighting foam, airport chief executive David Lanham said.
More bores will begin to be drilled next week for more tests, to assess if contaminated groundwater was moving off the airport site, Mr Lanham said.
"There are no formal requirements for landowners or regulatory authorities to notify [the public of] the results of investigations," the ministry said in a statement today.
PFASs were not included in the drinking-water standards, only in interim guidelines, so district health boards and the Ministry of Health do not need to be told if they were found, it said.
"Currently there is no consistent evidence that environmental exposures at the low levels New Zealanders are generally exposed to will cause harmful health effects," the ministry said.
"The interim guidance levels for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water were derived from effects found at certain doses in animal studies.

What led to the water crisis?
The Himachal Pradesh High Court, Thakkar said, put a blanket ban on use of water from springs around Shimla after unclean water from a sewage treatment plant contaminated the streams, resulting in an outbreak of jaundice that affected more than 500 people in the city.
Sludge from a treatment plant at Malyana, which had a faulty sewage treatment system, was flowing into the Ashwani Khad.
An Indian Express report from 2016 pointed out that since major reservoirs were not being used, Shimla was heading for a crisis.
The increasing population isn’t the only reason to blame for the present crisis.While the government had planned to set up a committee, under the chief secretary, 3 years ago, to get a loan from the World Bank which would finance lifting of 104 MLD of Sutlej water from the Kol Dam, such a committee has not been set up.
They must ensure that sewage does not get mixed with water through decentralised sewage treatment plants," he said.
Delhi too is may face water shortage soon.
He said while the government promotes rainwater harvesting, "how many government buildings have rainwater harvesting facilities in Delhi?"
According to Thakkar 85% of India’s irrigation water, 55% of urban water and nearly 50% of industrial water comes from India’s ground water reserves and that India is the largest user of ground water reserves in the world.
The government must come up with the policy to sustain ground water levels that are running low across the country.

ABINGTON, Pa. — Illicit discharges are responsible for poor water quality in many U.S. streams, lead to potential health problems for people playing in the streams, and are illegal.
That’s why Penn State Abington researchers are gathering the best minds in the region to help save Philadelphia’s natural water systems.
Penn State Abington, in partnership with the Philadelphia Water Department, invites faculty-led undergraduate and graduate student teams from local colleges and universities to participate in the Philadelphia Water Challenge: Cross Connection Detection Improvement Contest.
Philadelphia Water’s Separate Storm Sewer system is vulnerable to dry weather discharges through cracked or misconnected laterals or pipes that allow sanitary sewage to enter the pipes that discharge directly to local streams and rivers.
These discharges can lead to water quality violations and potential health concerns.
For decades, utilities and municipalities have spent millions to track down and abate these misconnected laterals.
The winner will be the team that demonstrates a functional methodology and/or technology to improve illicit connection detection.
What’s your best solution to detecting these illicit discharges?
Get started now by registering for the Philadelphia Water Challenge: Cross Connection Detection Improvement Contest.
Penn State Abington provides an affordable, accessible, and high-impact education resulting in the success of a diverse student body.

Scores of indigenous ethnic Phnorng residents of four villages in east Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province have fallen ill after drinking contaminated water, a representative said Tuesday, as the death toll from a similar incident in neighboring Kratie province increased to 18.
Prap Chuob, a Phnorng resident of Chak Char village, in Keo Seima district’s Sre Chhouk commune, told RFA’s Khmer Service that at least 80 people in his and three other villages recently became sick last week after consuming water from a stream passing through the area that had long been used for drinking.
“Those who are short of resources tried to boil tree bark as [a kind of traditional treatment],” he said, adding that, “in general, they are all facing severe hardship.” Prap Chuob said that villagers are now afraid to use the stream for drinking water, and have no other source of water because there are no water wells, other than a limestone well, which he said is “difficult to use.” “The villagers traditionally raise cattle, and their lives have become very difficult because of the water contamination,” he said.
According to Prap Chuob, the contamination was caused by a Chinese mining company that had been drilling upstream near the water source.
The stream network connects Ter creek to Kratie province’s Cheth Borey district, where the death toll from a river pollution incident that sickened more than 200 people in two villages earlier this month reached 18 on Tuesday.
‘Influenza epidemic’ Sre Chhouk commune chief Te Khit on Tuesday denied that residents were sickened by contaminated water, and said that an investigation conducted by provincial authorities and officials from Cambodia’s Ministry of Health had found that the 80 were suffering from “influenza.” Most of the 46 villagers who sought medical treatment at the hospital have already returned home, he added, while authorities have educated residents about proper water sanitation techniques and donated pure drinking water to area families.
“If it is the result of waste dumping or the use of chemical substances as part of mining operations, the ministry must take stringent and urgent measures,” he said.
Last week, villagers hospitalized after drinking water taken from the polluted river began to return home, with many expressing concern that clean water distributed by authorities may soon run out, leaving them again dependent on a contaminated source.
U.S.-based advocacy group Water.org found that around four million Cambodians lack access to clean water, while some six million others lack access to proper sanitation and hygiene.
Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has reached an agreement with environmental groups that will require 10 coal-fired power plants to obtain new water pollution permits with lower limits for toxic releases into streams, Kallanish Energy reports.
The five-page settlement, filed last week in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, involves power plants that have been operating with expired water pollution permits for years, officials said.
The settlement will help insure drinking water is not impacted by arsenic, boron, bromides, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium from power plant discharges.
The power plants are Cheswick Generating Station, Brunner island, Montour Steam Electric Station, Keystone Generating Station, Ebensburg Power, Conemaugh Generating Station, Homer City Generating Station, Cambria Cogen, Bruce Mansfield Generating Station and the Colver Power Plant.
DEP agreed to a schedule to update and draft new water permits for the 10 plants and to finalize all the permits by March 2019.
“This settlement is a step in the right direction for Pennsylvania streams and public health,” said PennFuture spokesman George Jugavic Jr. in a statement.
Last June, the Sierra Club, PennFuture and the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association sued DEP for allowing the power plants to operate with expired National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits that specify limits on discharges to streams.
Such permits are to be updated every five years under federal rules and are to updated as technologies improve.
The suit asked DEP to re-issue new permits that included newer guidelines published in 2016 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Colorado health officials have granted Climax Molybdenum a third extension of a “temporary” lifting of the state’s health limit for molybdenum pollution of a creek, allowing continued elevated discharges above Denver’s drinking water supplies.
The delay, commissioners said, will give time for Climax to resolve scientific uncertainty around how much molybdenum is too much for people.
Climax has been lobbying the CDPHE to relax the statewide limit for molybdenum pollution of waterways, which would ease the company’s wastewater-cleaning burden.
Molybdenum is used to harden steel and for petroleum-industry lubricants.
An existing water treatment plant below the mine removes many contaminants, though not molybdenum.
Denver Water officials and downstream communities concerned about the contamination — CDPHE officials have said they’re aware of molybdenum spikes at up to 3,000 ppb – accepted giving Climax more time with the understanding that Climax would work to reduce the pollution.
“During the time the temporary modification is in place, additional independent analyses of the recently completed studies on molybdenum’s impact on human and animal health will proceed, and we look forward to discussing their conclusions with our stakeholders,” Kinneberg said.
The EPA hasn’t set a drinking-water regulation for molybdenum.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, has determined that ingesting no more than 45 micrograms of molybdenum a day is OK for adults but that most Americans ingest 76 to 109 micrograms.
Long-term exposure of rats and mice to molybdenum dust has been shown to cause damage to the nasal cavity and lungs.