Over the weekend, a city of Philadelphia water alert notified residents that their drinking water might have been contaminated thanks to a latex spill from a company called Trinseo at their Altuglas facility in Bristol, PA. 

City of Philadelphia Water Alert

A Public Safety Alert hit everyone’s phones stating that the city of Philadelphia recommended using bottled drinking water starting at 2PM yesterday “until further notice” for all Philadelphia Water Department customers. 

The alert continued to say that contaminants have not been found in the system at this time but the recommendation to drink bottled water was out of caution due to the spill in the Delaware River. 

As of last night, here’s what the Inky was running with in regards to what happened. 

• More than 8,000 gallons of a latex-finishing solution spilled into Otter Creek near the Delaware River on Friday Night. 

• The city said tap water would remain safe to drink until at least 11:59PM on Monday, March 27. 

• The initial advisory to avoid tap water, which was issued Sunday morning “out of an abundance of caution” was updated based on sampling results and new estimates. 

• There is no concern related to skin exposure, so people should still feel comfortable bathing and washing dishes, said Mike Carrol, deputy managing director for the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability. 

• The city said boiling tap water would not remove the chemicals in question. 

That of course, caused quite the panic throughout the city as residents rushed to their local grocery stores to buy up as much water as possible and rightfully so. 

Those updates stink. The water is fine until midnight, then what exactly happens to the water? It doesn’t appear that anyone actually knows. What exactly does this chart mean?

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This all prompted a lot of talk on social media about how people are so fucking terrible for running to the stores and buying up all the water. I would have disagree with those claims. 

What do you want people to do after getting an alert like the one above? They are scared to drink the water and rightfully so with inconsistent updates from city officials in regards to if it’s safe to drink or not. 

“The water wasn’t contaminated but don’t drink the water, but also at midnight, we don’t know what the hell is going on but probably don’t drink it when the clock strikes 12.”  

Ok. 

What a total shit show. Luckily for the folks out in the suburbs (shoutout Glen Mills) we thrive of that sweet, sweet, Chester County water and say out of the Philly supply. 

For those of you in Philly, take a trip down 95 and grab some clean water and hopefully this all blows over sooner than later.

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