Philadelphia officials say city water is safe to drink until at least 11:59 p.m. on March 29 as they continue testing it for contamination.
They expect to keep extending that timeline as they continue testing water upstream, entering a water treatment facility and accounting for the time it takes for treated water to flow down river to home taps.
The concern for possible contamination of drinking water in certain parts of Philadelphia started on March 24 after a white cloud of chemicals floated down the Delaware River, when 8,100 gallons of acrylic latex polymer spilled into Otter Creek in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and swiftly moved into the nearby Delaware River.
The spill originated at the Altuglas LLC manufacturing facility in Bristol, a Trinseo PLC company, maker of plastics and latex binders.
The chemical began flowing at about 11:30 p.m. March 24, and “as of early morning [Sunday] March 26, 2023, no additional product was leaving the facility and entering the Delaware River,” a spokesperson from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told The Epoch Times.
Dissolves in Water
Acrylic latex polymer is often used in the production on synthetic latex. The material overflowed from a containment system and entered a storm drain, where it flowed to Otter Creek and the Delaware River, Trinseo said in a statement. It dissolves in water.“Because the material is highly water soluble, and the release coincided with a period of rainfall, the material dissipated quickly in the water,” the company said. “To assess potential impacts, water samples were collected at designated locations. Results received to date have not detected the released material.”
There have not been any signs of fish or wildlife impacts, the DEP said in a statement.
The city’s water is safe to drink, Philadelphia officials said during a March 27 video press briefing on the city’s emergency response to the chemical spill.
Testing continues at 12 locations. No contamination has been reported, and city officials expect to have the incident behind them within a couple of days.
But grocery stores in Philadelphia are running out of bottled water and commenters on social media are skeptical about accepting the government’s word on safety.
The DEP is monitoring the drinking water by working with the following: Aqua Pennsylvania, Lower Bucks Joint Municipal Authority, Philadelphia Water Department, and New Jersey American, Philadelphia city officials, and other government agencies.
The DEP is conducting an investigation of the incident, city officials said.
Coast Guard pollution responders conducted shoreline patrols Sunday morning and observed no visible product located along the Delaware River, according to a Coast Guard statement. Clean-up was primarily focused on removing product from the storm drain system and outflow located on Mill Creek.
So far, 60,000 gallons of contaminated water have been collected.
The response is being conducted in close coordination with local and federal agencies including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Trinseo paused production operations at the facility to devote its full resources to addressing the release and to conduct a thorough review and analysis of all material-handling processes and equipment at the Bristol facility, the company said.
The Bristol facility manufactures acrylic resins for Trinseo’s engineered materials business. The plant employs approximately 110 people.
