An official letter says the material was not hazardous the almost 5,000 pounds of a compound that was released into the Holston River in early January, according to a letter from Eastman to the Tennessee Department of Water Resources.The letter from Neal Whitten of Eastman’s Environmental Operations says that on January 4, 2021, a company representative notified agencies of a release of ethylene glycol into the river.The release began on the evening of January 3 and is estimated to have lasted for roughly six hours.