Philadelphia chemical spill reveals water infrastructure weaknesses

BY LILY BENN ’24

On March 24, a latex emulsion chemical spill from a Trinseo Altuglas plant in Bristol, Pennsylvania, caused panic over the safety of drinking water in Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. As of March 28, the water in Philadelphia is confirmed safe to drink. However, the previous Sunday morning, the city of Philadelphia’s officials issued a tap water advisory. This caused many residents of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas to rush to grocery stores to stock up on bottled water to avoid drinking contaminated water, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

According to Plastics Today, approximately eight thousand gallons of the acrylic polymer overflowed the onsite containment system and entered a storm drain.

From this drain, the chemicals flowed into Otter Creek, a tributary that flows into the Delaware River. Philadelphia’s water sources come from the Delaware River and the Schuylkill River. There is only one public treatment plant regulating public city water from the Delaware River, the Baxter Water Treatment Plant, an article from WHYY-FM explained.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, as of 2023, there is little research on the effects of ingesting or coming into contact with the three main chemicals released in the spill: ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate and butyl acrylate.

There is some evidence of adverse health effects for all three chemicals, but there is little knowledge of their long-term effects.

This is not the first time Trinseo has had chemical spills, The Philadelphia Inquirer explained. In fact, there have been four documented cases of latex chemical leaks in this area since 2010 under the ownership of the European company Arkema. During this time, the Environmental Protection Agency released a corrective action plan for the Trinseo chemical plant after discovering that groundwater was “contaminated with a variety of organic and inorganic chemicals,” per the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Baxter Water Treatment Plant supplies water to half of the city of 1.5 million people, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was closed as soon as city officials learned of the chemical spill, but on the following Sunday, the plant was forced to reopen to maintain regulated water levels, with city officials issuing the aforementioned tap water advisory.

This advisory was revoked the following Tuesday following hydraulic modeling and water sampling showing that the threat of contam-