Philadelphia says the city’s tap water is safe to drink after a chemical spill in the Delaware River

By Celina Tebor, Danny Freeman and Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN

After a chemical spill last week in the Delaware River spurred fears of tap water contamination, Philadelphia officials said the city’s drinking water is safe to use.

“(The Philadelphia Department of Water) has determined that Philadelphia’s drinking water will not be impacted by the spill in Bucks County,” the city said Tuesday evening. “With this data showing no threat to public health, the city is ending the ongoing advisories about monitoring at the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant.”

An estimated 8,100 gallons of a water-soluble acrylic polymer solution was released into the Delaware River outside Philadelphia late Friday night, just a few miles upstream of a key intake for the city’s Baxter water treatment plant.

The spill was the result of an “equipment failure” at a Trinseo PLC plant that makes acrylic resins, the owner said.

At least one of the leaked chemicals, butyl acrylate, is among the contaminants of concern identified in last month’s derailment of a train carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio.

The city maintains that no contaminants have been found in any of Philadelphia’s water after Friday’s spill. The city water department previously said that any contamination would have cleared the area by Wednesday or Thursday.

“Out of an abundance of caution,” the water department “will continue enhanced monitoring of the Delaware River and the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant for spill-related material,” the city said Tuesday.

Many residents had scrambled to buy bottled water from quickly emptying grocery store shelves, with leaders initially recommending that residents use bottled water as a precaution starting Sunday at 2 p.m. Many expressed concerns about potential hazards as well as frustration and confusion over officials’ repeated statements that the city’s water is safe after the initial bottled-water recommendation.

“Right now, I feel like it’s like a race. First come, first serve,” resident Karina Medina told CNN affiliate KYW-TV. “It’s sad because everybody needs the water, and right now, I’m on my mission for water.”

Resident Gerald Brown told CNN on Monday he still was buying water from the store as a precaution, saying, “You just can’t take any chances nowadays. You just gotta take care of your family. You gotta be sure.”

On Monday, officials reiterated advice that residents should have three days of water on hand as a precaution in case contaminants were discovered in the city’s supply. The mayor recommended filling bottles and pitchers with tap water.

Philadelphia resident Joe Sole told CNN on Monday that the experience of East Palestine residents — some of whom have reported feeling health complications after the spill — made him more wary of relying on officials’ statements.

“We’re afraid to drink the regular water,” Sole said. “I don’t trust the city.”

Michael Carroll, the city’s deputy managing director for transportation, infrastructure and sustainability, acknowledged concerns about the chemicals Sunday but said they had yet to be detected in the city’s water. He added that the “potential for contamination is diminishing over time.”

“Butyl acrylate, in particular, is a chemical that was identified in the spill in East Palestine. So, we understand there are some known health effects and their established thresholds in terms of the parts per billion that the EPA feels are safe,” Carroll said Sunday.

Not all Philadelphia residents receive water from the Baxter plant. The city’s two other treatment facilities are fed by the Schuylkill River, which the city says was not impacted by the spill.

Officials address community frustrations

Some residents have expressed confusion after city officials sent an initial mobile phone alert recommending that people use bottled water beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday, only to say later that afternoon that water from the Baxter plant was safe to use until at least Monday night.

The first advisory was sent “out of an abundance of caution,” officials said after updating the guidance Sunday. But some residents felt that the quickly changing information eroded their confidence in Philadelphia officials’ handling of the incident.

“They sound like they don’t really know what they’re talking about,” Sole said Monday. “They don’t sound confident in what they’re telling us.”

Carroll said Monday that communicating about the spill is a “difficult thing to balance.”

“Everything we have done to communicate with the public has been done in the interest of both transparency and out of an abundance of care and caution to make sure our people are safe,” Carroll said.

Officials were working “around the clock” to ensure the spill doesn’t become a public health risk, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said Monday.

“We understand the legitimate concern that is felt by the public as the release of chemicals into our waterways can pose a major threat to our health and safety,” the mayor said.

60,000 gallons of contaminated water collected

At least 60,000 gallons of contaminated water has been collected since the spill, the US Coast Guard said Sunday.

The agency did not see any visible signs of the leaked product, which officials have described as a white plume, while conducting patrols along the Delaware River Sunday, the Coast Guard said.

Trinseo says the solution overflowed from the on-site containment system and flowed into a storm drain, where it was carried to Otter Creek and then to the Delaware River.

“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 in a release.

Among the chemicals that spilled:

• Butyl acrylate is a potentially flammable colorless liquid with an acrid odor which can cause irritation of the eyes, skin and respiratory system, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

• Ethyl acrylate can cause irritation symptoms depending on exposure, the CDC says. Both are often used in the manufacturing of paints and adhesives.

• Methyl methacrylate, sometimes called MMA, is a colorless liquid with a fruity odor often used in the production of acrylic plastics and resins. Exposure to MMA can cause irritation to the eyes, skin, nose and throat as well as skin inflammation. The polymer version of MMA is often used in dental applications.

The facility, which halted its operations following the spill, is expected to partially resume production “within the next several days” before returning to full production soon after, the company said.

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CNN’s Samantha Beech, Paul P. Murphy, Amanda Jackson, Polo Sandoval, Holly Yan, Susannah Cullinane and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.