[WestVirginia]

I am curently residing in WV and there was a large chemical spill here recently. The media reports that the chem involved was "4-methycyclohexane methanol." Apparently it is not very soluble in water.

If it is not soluble, it should float on the surface like oil, correct? Here is where is gets interesting. The city water supply was polluted because the chem was leaked upstream of the water intake. Apparently the water intake is nowhere near the surface of the water. I am wondering if the company added something to the chem to make it sink to the bottom. What sort of chem would do this? Just a simple emulsifying agent?

An additional chemical called "PPH" was also found in the water which is a type of glycol ether. Is it possible this second chemical was used to mask the presence of the first?

[Borek]

If it is not soluble, it should float on the surface like oil, correct?

Depends on the amount and density, but yes, that's kind of behavior I would expect. However, water is most likely contaminated by the amount that was dissolved. There is no such thing as "insoluble" substance, everything dissolves in everything - just the concentrations of saturated solutions are different.

[clarkstill]

There is no such thing as "insoluble" substance, everything dissolves in everything - just the concentrations of saturated solutions are different.

Really? Plastic in water? Salt in petrol? Elemental carbon? I'm slightly doubtful of this...

[Borek]

Picograms per liter, femtogram per liter, attogram per liter... I am on my mobile right now so not easy to find examples but I guess salt in petrol should be relatively easy to Google.

[clarkstill]

I realise many things we think of as insoluble are actually extremely sparingly soluble, but I also think it's an overstatement to say that everything is soluble in everything... How about an old phone made of bakelite?  The entire thing is a single molecule, so we know its solubility in water is zero...

[Arkcon]

That's fair.  If you believe the Bakelite will never breakdown into anything else, that is then very sparingly soluble in water.  Yet that is exactly what happens.  Surely, since Bakelite has been known for centuries, the originals are not still around, as monuments more permanent than the pyramids.

[billnotgatez]

I wonder when you go from soluble to suspended.
Sometimes I am too pedantic for my own good (or obtuse).

[Borek]

Suspended can be filtrated.

Once you get osmosis into account difference starts to be blurry.