CHARLESTON – Nearly a week has passed since a chemical leak shut down the water supply for around 300,000 West Virginia residents. Thousands of gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol leaked from a storage tank and into the Elk River, polluting the water supply for nine counties, CNN reports. The chemical, which smells like licorice, had been used to “wash” coal.

The state has been carefully cleaning up the spill, lifting “do not use” orders for 105,000 people as of Tuesday. Residents in effected counties couldn’t not drink, wash or cook with the tainted tap water.

Residents had to use bottled water for hand washing, bathing, brushing teeth, and cooking. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and water companies brought in bottled water, which firefighters, the National Guard and police gave out to residents. The contamination closed businesses and schools that had no way to provide safe water for employees or students.

Because the Elk River is a branch of the Kanawha River, which flows into the Ohio, the spill spread to communities outside West Virginia, too, as the Greater Cincinnati Water Works, which provides water service to Cincinnati, and portions of four counties in Kentucky and Ohio, stopped using water from the Ohio River for a while. The Kentucky water systems servicing Ashland and Russell also shut off their valves temporarily as a precaution.

Meanwhile, close to two-thirds of the original West Virginia residents not able to use their tap water are still without running water, except for toilet use. No word on when the West Virginia American Water Co. anticipates having everyone back online with tap water.