“We are working with the perpetrators (leaks), local and federal agencies to implement effective security measures,” the emergency services told reporters.
The mayor’s office said no hazardous substances have yet been found in the water supply, but still advised Philadelphia’s 1.5 million residents to drink only bottled water.
On Friday night, more than 30 tons of water-soluble polymer, which is used in the production of latex, leaked into the river due to a pipe rupture at the Trinseo PLC chemical plant.
On February 3, a freight train carrying industrial chemicals derailed in Ohio, near the city of East Palestine. The resulting spill of hazardous chemicals caused a fire and then an explosion, after which chemical vapors and combustion products entered the atmosphere.
The state Department of the Environment said at the time that the level of contamination did not exceed acceptable standards, canceling the evacuation announced immediately after the incident, but representatives of civil society and local emergency services insisted that federal authorities downplayed the the magnitude of the incident.
