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A chemical spill has occurred in West Virginia that may have contaminated tap water. Officials told at least 300,000 people not to bathe, brush their teeth or wash their clothes. The federal authorities are opening an investigation into what caused the spill that tainted the Elk River, the Voice of Russia reported.

The chemical is a foaming agent that on Thursday leaked from a tank at a local plant producing mining chemical products and went into the river. As a result, schools and restaurants closed and grocery stores sold out of bottle water.

Officials say that they are not sure how dangerous the spill is to residents. It was not immediately clear how much of the chemical spilled into the river and at what concentration. According to the biotechnology company Fisher Scientific, the chemical is harmful if swallowed or inhaled and causes eye and skin irritation.

The West Virginia National Guard is planning to distribute bottled drinking water to emergency services agencies in the nine affected counties. State officials say that 300,000 people in total have been affected.

A spokesman for the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said on Friday that there was no information of any hospitals closing and that the local medical centres had adequate water supply.

The federal government has declared the West Virginia chemical spill a disaster. US President Obama is sending federal assistance to the state, where schools and businesses are closed after a toxic spill into one of the state’s major rivers. The US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are coordinating efforts with local officials. Nine West Virginia counties have been affected by the spill.

About 300,000 people in West Virginia have been warned not to drink tap water after a chemical spill into the Elk River. The spill was first found after the state's environmental protection department received a report of a strange spell near the river on Thursday.

Officials found a leaking storage unit at a coal-processing plant in the capital city Charleston. A toxic chemical from the tank overrun a containment area and leaked into the Elk River. The full extent of the spill remains unknown.

Water contamination has become a pressing issue in the US, due to fracking and other drilling procedures. Hundreds of complaints regarding pollution have been filed in at least 4 US states, with numerous cases confirmed. West Virginia has received 122 such complaints over the last 4 years, four of which were considered grave enough to warrant “corrective action.”

Oil spills have also been a major source of pollution in the US. An oil pipeline in northwestern North Dakota spewed an estimated 20,600 barrels of crude oil into a wheat field last year, according to the state’s department of health. Earlier, an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Arkansas, with approximately 5 thousand to 7 thousand barrels of crude spilling out.

Some oil continues to leak from the well site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, according to some reports. An explosion at the rig which has been declared sealed was the cause of the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.