East Palestine train derailment, is Cincinnati's water safe to drink?
Greater Cincinnati Water Works officials say the chemicals leaked into the Ohio River after the East Palestine train derailment will likely have no impact on the drinking water for its 1.1 million customers.
Jeff Swertfeger, superintendent of water quality and treatment for the utility, explained the situation to The Enquirer in an interview.
The utility has been testing the water locally about 10 times a day since the spill and reported Wednesday that no chemicals have been detected. Regular testing will continue, the agency said. The water works website will be updated daily with new test results.
Swertfeger said the only compound detected in the Ohio River since the Feb. 3 derailment is butyl acrylate, which the train was carrying. Butyl acrylate is a compound used in paints, plastics, sealants and other products.
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Vinyl chloride was the chemical tied to large fires and smoke plumes in the rural eastern Ohio town. Swertfeger said this chemical has not been detected in the water as most of it was likely burnt up.
Greater Cincinnati Water Works said it is believed that low levels of butyl acrylate seeped the Ohio River through a small creek about 300 miles upstream of Cincinnati.
Swertfeger said the highest reports of butyl acrylate he has seen from upstream are 4 parts per billion. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry issued a health guidance bulletin stating that the chemical can start having negative health effects at 560 parts per billion.
Swertfeger said his agency has been doing laboratory testing with butyl acrylate.
"We can test for it pretty easily," he said. "We can very easily remove this with the processes we have here."
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If, for some reason, the levels of butyl acrylate or any other chemical rise to hazardous levels, Swertfeger said the water intakes in the river can be shut down for several days.
The intakes have been shut down in the past, he said.
During the Elk River chemical spill in 2014, a storage tank holding the coal-washing chemical MCHM ruptured upstream from Charleston, West Virginia. Swertfeger said Cincinnati's intakes were closed as this chemical passed by in the river.
That same year, 9,000 gallons of diesel fuel was spilled as Duke Energy was shutting down the Beckjord Power Station in New Richmond, Ohio. The intakes were closed then as well.
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Swertfeger said the river is currently moving at just over one mile per hour. At that rate, the potentially contaminated water from East Palestine will reach Cincinnati as early as Sunday. He said rain could speed that up.
Greater Cincinnati Water Works is monitoring the situation along with the Ohio EPA and Region 5 of the U.S. EPA.
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission reports that about 6 million people get their water from the Ohio River.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: East Palestine train derailment: Is Cincinnati water safe to drink?
