The Northern Kentucky Water District and Greater Cincinnati Water Works announced Friday that intake valves along the Ohio River would be closed in preparation for the chemicals passing this weekend from the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
The Northern Kentucky Water District announced Friday that it would shut down its Ohio River intakes as a precautionary measure. In an updated release sent out by the company, they said samples upstream in the Ohio River have been non-detectable for chemicals related to the train derailment since Tuesday.
While The Northern Kentucky Water District services a large part of Northern Kentucky, Boone County receives service from Greater Cincinnati Water Works. According to the company, in 2003, they began selling water to Boone County via a pipeline installed under the Ohio River.
The Northern Kentucky Water District said it is working closely with the Greater Cincinnati Water Works to continue monitoring the Ohio River upstream and at its water intakes.
The water district uses powdered activated carbon in addition to granular activated carbon which they said will also serve as a protective treatment barrier.
The Northern Kentucky Water District told LINK nky on Tuesday that they were monitoring water intake valves on the Ohio River after an East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment and subsequent toxic plume on Feb. 3 that caused concerns that chemicals could be finding their way into local drinking water.
Most chemicals were contained at the site of the derailment, Northern Kentucky water district’s water quality manager Mary Carol Wagner said in a press release on Feb. 10. However, one of the chemicals was detected at low levels in the Ohio River “far upstream of our water supply intakes,” Wagner said. “Butyl acrylate is a clear liquid with a pungent odor used in arts and crafts, adhesives, flooring, sinks, bathtubs.”
Water contaminated with butyl acrylate likely won’t make it to where Northern Kentucky pulls water from the Ohio River for about a week, Wagner said Tuesday.
“In case of incidents like this, we can actually shut our intakes from pulling water in from the Ohio into the reservoirs and feed off of the reservoirs and let the contaminated water flow downstream,” Wagner told LINK nky Tuesday.
In a meeting held earlier today, The University of Kentucky (UK) College of Public Health expert and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health Erin Haynes said that chemical levels in the Ohio River are dissipating as it nears Northern Kentucky from East Palestine.
“The (chemical) level was higher in the East Palestine area, and as now the concentration is becoming smaller and smaller, it’s dissipating out (as it travels downstream,)” Haynes said. “So I do not think there is a concern for Cincinnati, and as it comes down our way to Louisville area. Unless there was another event, and more chemicals released, which I have not seen any reports of that, so if we’re only looking at this current concentration and its levels getting lower, no, I do not think that’s a concern.”
When asked if the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati areas needed to be concerned about their drinking water Haynes said, “The levels are low, and they are still low, and when the water treatment facility uses activated carbon and other treatment methods, that level goes even lower.”
She continued that the activated carbon does an “excellent job” of removing and reducing any chemical levels that may appear in drinking water.
Regarding symptoms people may have when exposed to the chemicals from the derailment, Haynes said she hears from the residents in East Palestine that they are experiencing skin irritation, respiratory issues, asthma exacerbation and skin rashes. However, those people were in the area most impacted.
Haynes said that while air quality around the crash site was the cause of initial concern, she said that this is changing as time goes on.
“The Environmental Protection Agency did go in and do a screen for volatile organic compounds, and they’re not finding very high levels,” Haynes said. “That leads me to think that the air is not the primary (concern) at this point. And now it’s more of what’s in the soil and could be trapped in the home. It’s also going to be the drinking water.”
Wagner told LINK nky on Tuesday that NKY’s water was fine to drink, and they were keeping a close eye on it and were “definitely concerned” about the safety of the drinking water.
