Chemical storage tanks at the site of West Virginia’s major chemical spill last month were found to be below federal and industry standards in an investigation conducted three months prior to the disaster, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said during testimony at a congressional hearing Monday.

In the hearing held by the West Virginia House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure concerning the January 9th spill at the Freedom Industries facility, the chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, Rafael Moure-Eraso, revealed that an October inspection by a private firm — Tank Engineering and Management Consultants — discovered tanks at the Elk River facility were “not necessarily in full compliance with” industry and federal government standards.

CSB is now investigating the spill. “The tanks in use at Freedom Industries were over one-half century old,” Moure-Eraso said during the hearing. “Considering the best way to improve the safety of tanks at facilities that have similar tanks in use is an important question.”

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“There was some concern about the condition of the tanks,” Johnnie Banks, lead investigator of CSB’s spill probe, said in reference to the months-old Tank Engineering inspection.

During that inspection, however, investigators did not examine the tank which subsequently leaked the 10,000 gallons MCHM into the Elk River, because the chemical was not considered “hazardous” by the the U.S. government—an assumption now being called into question.

The tank, Moure-Eraso explained further, was surrounded by an inadequate “secondary containment wall” that “provided very little protection from a possible release.”

That tank eventually developed two substantial holes and released the licorice smelling chemical into the public water supply for over 300,000 residents, which has caused widespread and ongoing health problems.

And despite promises that the water is now safe, it remains unclear one month after the spill just how accurate those promises are—a question officials seemed unable or unwilling to answer at the hearing.