Oral History of the 2014 Chemical Spill & Water Crisis in Charleston, West Virginia

• In Event: Oral Histories of the 2014 Charleston West Virginia Chemical Spill and (Ongoing) Water Crisis

Abstract

This paper briefly summarizes a project sponsored by the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy and funded by the Oral History Association’s Emerging Crisis Research Fund. Titled the “Oral History of the 2014 Chemical Spill & Water Crisis,” the project engaged a team of 6 researchers and writers to conduct oral history interviews on the January 9, 2014, Chemical Spill in Charleston, West Virginia, an event affecting the drinking water of over 300,000 people—the largest disaster of its kind in American history. I briefly outline the progress of the project and its current evolution, especially as it develops along lines of collaborative ethnography. The paper includes background of the water crisis and the events that spawned the project’s beginnings; process of research design and the methods of our oral history collection; preliminary findings; and future plans for the work.

Author

• Luke Eric Lassiter, Marshall University