Tap water use OK’d in some West Virginia areas after spill

West Virginia officials on Monday lifted a ban on drinking or bathing with tap water in some areas of the state hit by a chemical spill that affected hundreds of thousands of people for five days, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin said. Officials had ordered some 300,000 people not to drink their tap water after as much as 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of the 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or crude MCHM, leaked into the river. Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water Co, said the first area cleared for use was in downtown Charleston, the state capital.