LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Any possible contaminants in the Ohio River from a toxic spill from the Feb. 3 train derailment in eastern Ohio are expected to flow past Louisville on Monday, according to the Louisville Water Company.
LWC said in a release that its calculations show "the Ohio River water that would have contained remnants of the train derailment spill will flow by Louisville today. ... Because we have no detections in our sampling, this means there are no quantifiable levels in the river water."
Testing on water from the Ohio River continues more than 200 times a day, and LWC said the "water is safe to drink, and scientists continue increased monitoring to keep it high-quality."
The Northern Kentucky Water District said in a release on Feb. 10 that low levels of the chemical butyl acrylate was detected upstream from Cincinnati. Both the NKWD and the Greater Cincinnati Water Works closed water intakes from the Ohio River over the weekend out of an abundance of caution. "Any remaining trace remnants of the spill" were expected to pass Cincinnati by Sunday morning.
According to the release from the Louisville Water Company, the water sampled upriver from Louisville showed it does not contain "any quantifiable amounts of butyl acrylate or other chemicals" from the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
LWC said its water quality team increased monitoring and testing of the Ohio River more than a week ago. It also analyzed samples from upriver from Louisville and checked results from the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) and other utilities along the river.
The release also said significant rainfall late last week helped speed up the flow of the Ohio River, which helped dilute any contaminants from the spill. The LWC said "on a normal day, an average of 75 billion gallons flow by Louisville, but because of the rainfall, the river’s flow has increased to more than three times that amount."
The table below shows sampling data from Louisville Water for butyl acrylate from Feb. 11-19. Each day, it said there was no detection.
The table shows sampling data for butyl acrylate from Saturday, Feb. 11 through Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023. Table provided by the Louisville Water Company. Feb. 20, 2023
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