Kenney says he doesn't regret Philadelphia tap water messaging after spill
UPDATE: Philadelphia tap water officially safe after chemical spill, Mayor Jim Kenney says
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Officials say Philadelphia tap water is safe to drink until Wednesday night.
But some confusion remains about mixed messages over the weekend -- and whether Philadelphia is prepared to handle a bigger water crisis.
With negative tests continuing to come in for any trace of contamination at the Northeast Philadelphia water treatment plant — the city is assuring people, for now, the tap water is safe.
Behind the scenes — the city has scrambled to contain a public relations nightmare around an early stumble with messaging — on Sunday — officials recommended people avoid tap water.
That left just a few hours for more than half the city to try and locate bottled water. It didn't go well as residents were sent into a frenzy and cleared out bottled water from several supermarkets across Philadelphia.
CBS Philadelphia wanted to know who was responsible.
Mayor Jim Kenney has been hard to find since this tap water crisis unraveled over the weekend. He didn't attend Sunday's virtual briefing with city officials from the water department, but he was present during Monday night's virtual presser.
On Tuesday, CBS Philadelphia found him at a Love Park jazz event and we pressed him about early messaging from the city — warning about the safety of tap water — after 8 to 12 thousand gallons of a latex product spilled into the Delaware River, a few miles north of water intakes at the treatment plant.
Kenney said he doesn't regret the advisories that went out over the weekend.
"No," Kenney said. "Here's the thing, look, it's scary to have your water supply infected with some kind of chemical."
But, who made the decision in Kenny's administration to send out the advisories?
"All of us," Kenney said. "I have a very collaborative administration. I am not the king. I listen to the experts in the field and follow their advice."
Kenney added he would do the same thing again.
The advisories on Sunday from the city told hundreds of thousands of people to avoid tap water left little time to respond — bottled water flew off shelves.
Kenney compared that to 2020's rush on toilet paper.
"We had a run on toilet paper back in COVID, which made no sense either," Kenney said. "And there's people buying 10 cases of water – it's pretty selfish."
Holden: "Was that a lesson though for your administration?
Kenney: "We weren't prepared to do the distribution yet… Because we didn't have the information, the testing wasn't completed."
Holden: "But why put out the bulletin?
Kenney: "Because people could choose to use bottled water if they felt safer doing it."
Workers were busy at the treatment facility.
Tests are continuing until the city says it's confident a whitish chemical plume is no longer a threat to drinking water for more than half of Philadelphia.
"We're gonna keep testing and make sure it's gone," Kenney said. "The plume is not visible."
The city says they are continuing to test the water, even though the whitish plume is no longer visible.
CBS Philadelphia requested photos of the whitish plume from the city, but we have yet to hear back.
