Philadelphia tap water determined safe, city says

Drinking water for the wide swath of Philadelphia served by a Delaware River treatment plan was declared safe, city officials said Tuesday evening, following the release of a latex solution into the watershed last week in Bucks County.

No chemicals have been detected in the city’s water system.

“I am grateful that no residents were exposed to unsafe chemicals in the city’s tap water following the spill,” said Mayor Jim Kenney.

An estimated 8,100 gallons of latex emulsion solution overflowed from a Bristol manufacturing facility into storm drains, according to Trinseo Altuglas, the company that operates the plant.

The drains took the latex product into Otter Creek, also known as Mill Creek, which flows into the Delaware River in Bristol Borough – just over 10 miles upstream from the water department’s Samuel S. Baxter Treatment Plant in Torresdale.

Baxter, which sits between Pleasant Hill Park and the city’s sprawling State Road jail complex, provides drinking water to South Philadelphia, Center City, the River Wards, North Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia and a small section of Northwest Philadelphia. The remainder of the city receives water sources from the Schuylkill River, which was not impacted by the incident.

Municipal officials have said they tested the water at a dozen different locations inside the plant and along the river.

Modeling is used to determine when the water determined to be uncontaminated will reach taps. It takes 24 to 48 hours for raw river water to be distributed to residents, according to the Kenney administration.

The water department has been monitoring for butyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate.