The Daily Show's Jon Stewart opened his show this Monday with a segment tackling the chemical spill which contaminated much of West Virginia's water supply, leaving residents angry and in need of a shower and clean drinking water as they waited to hear if and when their water would be safe to use again.
Stewart was as shocked as I was to discover that this plant was located so close upstream to the local water treatment plant, and had not been monitored since 1991.
STEWART: Why would you build your toxic chemical storage tanks, upstream... and drinking water adjacent? Although, I imagine, because it was in such a vulnerable position, it was highly regulated, this toxic chemical storage facility. As a matter of fact, from what I understand, these toxic chemical tanks have been inspected as recently as... uh.... 1991.
1991! That's like six Batmans ago!
As Stewart noted, in lieu of the state having some regulations that might have protected their residents, the state's governor "had some post-cautions." After playing some of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's presser warning residents about the dangers of the chemicals in the water, Stewart asked what the name was of "the company that has clearly exploited the lack of scrutiny and regulations of the toxic chemical industry since 1991?"
Who could have guessed? Freedom Industries. Perfect.
After getting some shots in on yet another Brit who was out there apologizing for something toxic being released into America's waters, Stewart brought on Daily Show "correspondent" Jason Jones who helped Stewart make a mockery of the fact that if a terrorist organization had done the same thing to our drinking water as this industry did, we might just be treating the matter a little differently.