The Northern Kentucky Water District is monitoring water intake valves on the Ohio River after an East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and subsequent toxic plume caused concerns that chemicals could be finding their way into local drinking water.
Northern Kentucky does not need to worry about contaminated water right now, said water quality manager Mary Carol Wagner.
“Water is fine to drink,” Wagner told LINK nky on Tuesday. “We are keeping a close eye on it and we are definitely concerned about the safety of our water – that is our daily job to do.”
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, according to the Associated Press. Vinyl chloride was later released into the air from five of those cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable, toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke.
Residents from nearby neighborhoods in Ohio and Pennsylvania were evacuated because of health risks from the fumes but have since been allowed to return.
While most chemicals were contained at the site of the derailment, Wagner said in a press release Feb. 3, 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.”
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky get water from the Ohio River through water intake valves downstream. That water is then pumped into two reservoirs in Northern Kentucky that hold it until it’s needed.
“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 said.
Right now, the intakes have not been shut off because any contamination from the derailment that has made it into the Ohio River has not reached local intake valves yet, Wagner said.
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission monitors water up and down the Ohio River, then provides data to the Northern Kentucky Water District that helps them figure out when to make decisions like closing water intake valves.
Water contaminated with Butyl acrylate likely won’t make it into where Northern Kentucky pulls water from the Ohio River for about a week, Wagner said.
Once that does happen, the intake valves will be closed and water from the reservoirs, which was collected before any potential contamination happened, will be available for public use.
“Even with the levels that are in the Ohio River right now, we do have health guidances on it and it is well below those health guidances,” Wagner said.
