In the wake of the recent chemical fire in Newburgh, Evansville Water and Sewer Utility (EWSU) wants to reassure our customers that our drinking water is safe and meets all state and federal standards. Our water treatment team has been closely monitoring the situation to ensure the water we provide remains of the highest quality.
Evansville’s water source is the Ohio River. First Responders indicate the water used for firefighting drained into Vann Park Pond, not the river. While some quantity of ash from the fire may have settled into the river, our intake pumps are located just a few feet above the river bottom. This means that the potential for contamination from ash particles depositing on the surface of the river during the fire was low. The fire has since been extinguished, so ongoing contamination from airborne particles is very unlikely.
In addition to our other water-quality testing, EWSU tests raw water from the river for organic contaminants every 4 hours using an online instrument. Test results show no unexpected organic species have been detected since the fire started. In recent days, we have been feeding powdered activated carbon (PAC) to control the presence of naturally occurring taste-and-odor chemicals in the river water. PAC can also remove many organic species from the water, providing some protection should a new contaminant appear in raw-water samples.
EWSU evaluates water quality multiple times each day to ensure that Evansville’s drinking water quality meets the regulatory standards. We remain ever vigilant in our efforts to ensure that EWSU’s customers are not affected by contamination in the Ohio River, from this event or any future events.
