[MNC-list] Fw: Phila. Water Dept. Monitoring Spill at Bucks County Facility

[Kevin Smith]

There was a spill in the Delaware River that may affect some Philadelphia residents.

Manayunk and most of Roxborough are not in the risk area.  See the attached map from https://phillyh2o.info/spill-map.

As per the below notice the risks, if any, appear to be very low.  Please be sure to read the second half of the message that describes the risks such as they are.

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2023 16:53:53 +0000 (UTC)
From: ReadyPhiladelphia <noreply at everbridge.net>
To: "usgsalert at shady.com" <usgsalert at shady.com>
Subject: Phila. Water Dept. Monitoring Spill at Bucks County Facility


Phila. Water Dept. Monitoring Spill at Bucks County Facility
This is a message from ReadyPhiladelphia.

Updates will be posted at the Philadelphia Water Department’s website https://water.phila.gov

March 26 11:30 a.m. Update: PWD continues to monitor a latex spill on the Delaware River that could impact Philadelphia drinking water. 

Philadelphia Water Department customers in the city are recommended to use bottled drinking water beginning at 2:00 p.m. today until further notice out of an abundance of caution.

The City of Philadelphia held a press conference to address the current information. You can view the conference on the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management Facebook feed.

A map of areas that could potentially be impacted by the spill can be viewed here: https://phillyh2o.info/spill-map 

Search your address in the map to see if you would be in an impacted area should the city issue any advisory. 

The following statement was issued by Michael Carrol, Deputy Managing Director for the City’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability (OTIS):

“As has been reported on Friday night a chemical spill occurred in Bristol Township, Bucks County which released contaminants into the Delaware River. PWD became aware of this through the early warning system and has been evaluating the situation since that time to understand potential impacts to the public. Although early indications have not revealed contamination, we are still monitoring the situation and conducting testing.

At approximately, 12:15 a.m. this morning, the intakes at the Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant were opened at high tide on the Delaware River and closed at approximately 5 a.m. This was done to maintain minimum levels of water in the system to avoid any damage to our equipment to continue supplying water for including fire safety and other needs.

Contaminants have not been found in our system at this time.

We expect there is no risk they will be present before 2 p.m. today. 

Nonetheless, because we cannot be 100 percent sure that there won’t be traces of these chemicals in the tap water throughout the afternoon, we want the public to be aware so that people can consider switching to bottle water to further minimize any risk.

Therefore, we are notifying the public that they may wish not to drink or cook with tap water. We will update this information later this afternoon.

I want to reiterate that the health risk are very low if present at all. No acute effects are associated with low-level exposure.

Our best information is that people who ingest water will not suffer any near-term symptoms or acute medical conditions.  

We foresee no reason to seek medical attention related to this event.

There is no concern over skin exposure or fire hazard.  Likewise, we have no concern over inhaling fumes at the levels we are evaluating.

Again, this advisory is being issued out of an abundance of caution to prevent any theoretical, long-term public health impacts and we will provide an update on the situation later this afternoon.

Contaminates have not been found in our system at this time.

Restaurants and food businesses will be safe conducting their normal business through lunchtime up until 2 p.m."
You are registered with ReadyPhiladelphia. To change your preferences, login. For questions, email warning at phila.gov. Download the Everbridge app on iOS or Android.

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