Philadelphia officials on Sunday afternoon rescinded their recommendation that residents use bottled drinking water after a toxic spill in the Delaware River.
A spill from an upstream chemical plant Friday night in Bucks County prompted bottled water cautionary alerts Sunday morning and afternoon, city officials said.
Tests determined there is no contamination in the river near the intake to the city’s water system, or in the system itself, Michael Carroll, the city’s deputy managing director, said in a video news conference Sunday morning. evening.
The inlet had been closed but was temporarily reopened early Sunday to ensure the system had a minimum level of water to maintain pressure for firefighting and other uses, authorities said.
At the Sunday night press conference, they said the tap water was safe to drink until at least midnight. Officials will provide updates on social media, they said.
Acknowledging a shortage of bottled water in the city, officials said there is no need to hoard bottled water and suggested that people use clean, empty containers to store tap water now in case the situation changes.
«Residents should try to maintain two days of water,» said Carroll, deputy director general of Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability.
He had said early Sunday that no contaminants had yet been found, but there was no guarantee the water would stay pure. according to NBC Philadelphia.
The system underwent repeated testing, and state environmental officials used a Philadelphia police plane to fly over the spill area, where no previous visual evidence was visible, Carroll said.
«The situation has improved,» he said Sunday night. «My understanding is that there was evidence along the Delaware at some point. They have not seen visual evidence of contamination in the river at this time.»
Authorities believe that bathing and showering in the water was always safe, he said.
The bottled water alerts came after a pipeline burst at Trinseo, a chemical plant in Bucks County, causing a chemical spill Friday night that spewed about 8,100 gallons of «water-soluble acrylic polymer solution.» water,» a latex finishing material, in Otter Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River, NBC Philadelphia reported.
The historic Delaware feeds the city’s Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant and separates Philadelphia from New Jersey.
Chemicals of concern feared to have spilled in Delaware include butyl acrylate and ethyl acrylate, both used to make resins, plastics and adhesives, city officials said.
Butyl acrylate was also aboard the freight train that derailed last month in East Palestine, Ohio, where federal officials raised concerns after the wreckage burned. They finally said that the community was safe for the residents.
Drinking Water Supplier Aqua Pennsylvania said in a statement that the company «immediately closed the entrance to our Bristol water system as soon as we learned of the chemical spill, preventing customer exposure to hazardous materials.»
«As a result of your swift action, we are not seeing any of the chemicals from the spill in our drinking water,» the statement continued.
The company said it is working with state and federal agencies to monitor the situation and will reopen the hydrant only when it «meets our strict quality standards.»
The exact cause of the Delaware spill was under investigation.
denis romero contributed.