The chemical spill that left 300,000 West Virginia residents without usable water involved more chemicals than the company responsible had previously reported, officials revealed this week, leading the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to order that company to give a full accounting of the chemicals that had leaked into the Elk River. 
 
 The newly disclosed chemical appears to be somewhat less toxic than MCHM, the chemical initially identified, and it made up only a small part of the Jan. 9 spill. But the late disclosure outraged officials and citizens who had been hungry for reliable information. 
 
 “It is very disturbing that we are just now finding out about this new chemical, almost two weeks after the leak,” said West Virginia’s secretary of state, Natalie E. Tennant, in a statement on Wednesday. She called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to post its water test results online. “We must have confidence that the water coming out of our faucets is not going to make our families sick.” 
 
 The owner of the storage tank where the leak occurred, Freedom Industries, initially said it had released crude MCHM — or 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, a toxic blend of coal cleaners — in the spill. But on Tuesday, the company revealed that the tank, which leaked about 7,500 gallons into the ground by the Elk River, had also contained a mixture of glycol ethers known as PPH, with a similar function as MCHM. 
 
 In response to the state’s order, the company stated Wednesday that PPH had made up 7.3 percent of the fluid, and “our records and internal investigation indicate that there were no other materials” in the tank at the time of the spill. 
 
 According to an account in The Charleston Gazette, the president of Freedom Industries, Gary Southern, disclosed the presence of the PPH in a meeting on Tuesday with H. Michael Dorsey, the director of homeland security and emergency response for the state Environmental Protection Department. 
 
 The two men were about to enter a scheduled meeting with state agencies to talk about the spill when Mr. Southern asked to speak privately and gave him the news. “He said, ‘I’m going to have a terrible day today,’ ” Mr. Dorsey told the newspaper. 
 
 An employee of Freedom Industries, reached by telephone, said the company had no comment. 
 
 The Centers for Disease Control issued a statement on Wednesday stating that information on the toxic properties of PPH “is limited,” but the lower apparent toxicity and smaller amount of the chemical “does not suggest any new health concerns associated with the release of PPH.” 
 
 Residents downstream from the spill have dealt with days of uncertainty and distrust over the leak and the information about it, said Andrew J. Whelton, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of South Alabama. “People are driving 60 miles away to take a shower,” he said. 
 
 He and colleagues drove to West Virginia to test the drinking water and to talk to residents about their experiences with the spill. The procedure for flushing water systems can expose people to the chemicals if care is not taken, he said; he has proposed and published an alternative flushing procedure online. 
 
 Marc Glass, an environmental consultant with the firm Downstream Strategies in Morgantown, said he was “stupefied” to hear about chemical contamination from news reports before the company had fully informed the public and government sources. “This is Spill Response 101,” he said. 
 
 Mr. Glass said that the spill could have involved chemicals with much greater toxicity, and so “this isn’t the worst thing that could be out in the environment.” Still, he said, “This is just a really good opportunity to take a serious look at what we’re doing.” 
 
 At a candlelight vigil on Tuesday night at the State Capitol, Cindy Harrah-Cox, whose adult daughter was hospitalized from drinking the water before the contamination was revealed, said, “I’m a mad mama” about the news of previously undisclosed chemicals in the mix. Ms. Harrah-Cox, whose husband is a retired coal miner, said, “I am thankful that my husband had a job for 32 years, one that could pay our bills and feed our family.” But, she added, “At what cost? Dying young? The air and water is killing us? Is it worth all that?” ||||| CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The ban on tap water for parts of West Virginia was lifted on Monday, ending a crisis for a fraction of the 300,000 people who were told not to drink, wash or cook with water after a chemical spill tainted the water supply. 
 
 Gov. Earl Tomblin made the announcement at a news conference, five days after people were told to use the water only to flush their toilets. 
 
 "The numbers we have today look good and we are finally at a point where the 'do not use' order has been lifted," he said. 
 
 Officials were lifting the ban in a strict, methodical manner to help ensure the water system was not overwhelmed by excessive demand, which could cause more water quality and service problems. Customers were asked to flush out their systems before using the water again. 
 
 Officials cautioned the water could still have a licorice-type odor, but they said it was safe. 
 
 "It's not going to bother me as long as we know it's clean," said Peter Triplett, a state library commission worker who was in the first area allowed to use water. "It's been rough going." 
 
 About 6,000 to 10,000 customers were cleared to use the water again Monday, and it could be days before the entire water system was cleared, West Virginia American Water President Jeff McIntyre said. 
 
 The first area cleared was downtown Charleston, the state capital and its largest city. Restaurants, day-care centers and schools there have closed during the emergency. 
 
 Schools Superintendent James Phares said he hoped the largest two school systems could reopen Tuesday, but cautioned: "We're not going to be rushing them back to school if it's not safe." 
 
 The water crisis started Thursday when a chemical used in coal processing leaked from a Freedom Industries plant into the nearby Elk River. 
 
 Complaints came in to West Virginia American Water about the odor. The source was the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol that spilled out of a 40,000 gallon tank. 
 
 State officials believe about 7,500 gallons leaked from the tank. Some of the chemical was contained before flowing into the river and it's not clear exactly how much entered the water supply. 
 
 Federal authorities, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, opened an investigation into the spill. 
 
 Over the past few days, tests have showed that levels were consistently below a toxic threshold, and in some samples, there was no trace of the chemical at all. Officials were also keeping a close eye on water downstream to make sure there was no further impact. No fish kills or other impact on aquatic life, wildlife or pets were reported. 
 
 Water distribution centers have handed out bottled water and trucks with large tanks of water have filled up containers for people to take home. 
 
 Some people put plastic bags around faucets so that they were reminded not to use the water. Others have left town to take a shower and find an open restaurant. 
 
 Only 14 people exposed to the contaminated water were admitted to the hospital, and none were in serious condition. 
 
 The chemical, even in its most concentrated form, isn't deadly. However, people were told they shouldn't even wash their clothes in affected water, as the compound can cause symptoms ranging from skin irritation and rashes to vomiting and diarrhea. 
 
 Lawmakers were to return to the Capitol on Monday after Friday's session was cut short because there wasn't any water. Their work now will likely include a look at how Freedom Industries flew under the regulatory radar. 
 
 Freedom Industries' tanks don't fall under an inspection program and the chemicals stored at the facility weren't considered hazardous enough to require environmental permitting, but there's already talk about changing that, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman said. One idea is to require tanks to be a certain distance from the river, he said. 
 
 Company president Gary Southern held a brief news conference Friday night, but otherwise company officials have declined to comment. 
 
 "We have mitigated the risk, we believe, in terms of further material leaving this facility," he said then. 
 
 The coal and chemical industries are major forces in the state's economy, providing thousands of jobs, but they also pose risks of spills and mine disasters. West Virginia is the second-largest coal producing state, behind Wyoming, and the state has about 150 chemical companies. The area where the spill happened is known as Chemical Valley. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Pam Ramsey, Brendan Farrington and Mitch Weiss in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.
– The chemical spill that has left more than 300,000 people in West Virginia without water appears to be the product of lax regulation in a state where coal and chemical firms have long operated with little oversight, the New York Times finds. A document released over the weekend reveals state authorities were aware that the company responsible was storing up to a million pounds of the coal-cleaning chemical Crude MCHM at a riverside facility near a water treatment plant, but it's not clear whether the treatment plant knew about the risk, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We can’t just point a single finger at this company," says the director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, noting that the site of the spill hadn't been inspected since 1991. "We need to look at our entire system and give some serious thought to making some serious reform and valuing our natural resources over industry interests." A tap water ban is still in place in the Charleston region, where many schools and businesses remain closed, but authorities say they can "see the light at the end of the tunnel" and they expect the ban to be lifted within days, starting in downtown Charleston and other priority zones, NBC reports.