Aqua Pa. shows how quick decisions were made to protect water supply
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Aqua Pennsylvania leaders credit quick, scientific-based decision-making for protecting one of its water treatment plants that's roughly 2,000 feet from where the chemical spill in Bristol floated into the Delaware River.
Aqua's water treatment plant in Bristol serves about 30,000 customers in several places, including Bristol Borough and Bristol Township.
Todd Duerr, Aqua Pennsylvania's vice president of operations, said the treatment team immediately made their way to the plant after being notified of the chemical spill Friday night.
"They went down toward the spill site. They looked at what the water was. They saw there were some traces of a white substance," Duerr said. "We didn't know what it was, so we decided to shut the plant down."
Duerr said the plant had the advantage of being upstream of the spill.
"As the water starts to move downstream, we know we had fresh water upstream coming past our intake," Duerr said. "So, we knew there was no danger."
But a river's water level rises and falls throughout the day.
quick decisions that were made to protect their water supply. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/esmbZOZiRw
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Once the Delaware River starts to rise, water gets pushed back upstream, which significantly increases the risk of the leaked chemical floating back towards the plant.
Aqua Pennsylvania devised a plan, where they closely monitored the river levels. Once the river started to rise, Aqua closed its river intake and reopened it only after the river's level started to drop. A falling river level means water is back flowing downstream.
"Let's watch the river. Let's do some scientific testing at our laboratories, a few other things in our treatment system," Duerr said. "We didn't turn the plant on until we were confident we knew what the situation was."
Aqua Pennsylvania President Marc Lucca said so far, their testing has shown no traces of the chemical in their water supply.
"We train for these types of things. We practice these types of events all the time," Lucca said. "We are here 24/7, 365 to protect their drinking water so they never have to think about it."
Aqua Pennsylvania said the chemical is now far enough downstream that they only have to be in a heightened state of alert for another 1-2 days.