CHARLESTON, West Virginia: Up to 300,000 West Virginia residents spent a second night unable to bathe, shower or drink tap water on Saturday after a chemical spill into the Elk River near the state capital of Charleston, although chemical levels were declining.

As much as 5,000 gallons (18,927 liters) of industrial chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or Crude MCHM, leaked into the river on Thursday, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin told CNN.

He declared a state of emergency for nine counties on Friday, and President Barack Obama issued an emergency declaration. The spill forced schools and businesses to close in Charleston, West Virginia’s largest city.

Tomblin said that hourly tests on the affected water supply show “the chemical level is declining.”

“But we’re just not sure exactly how long it’s going to take before it’s acceptable to lift the do-not-drink ban,” he said.

Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water Co, which runs the state’s largest water treatment plant, also said he could not say when the water would be safe to use. “We don’t know that the water’s not safe, but I can’t say it is safe,” he told a news conference.

Water carrying this chemical has an odor like licorice or anize, McIntire said, and though not highly lethal, the level that could be considered safe has yet to be quantified.

By Friday evening, 737 people had called the West Virginia Poison Center to report concerns or symptoms related to the spill, water company spokeswoman Elizabeth Scharman said.