LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville Water Company is reassuring customers that its water is safe to drink.

The company held a news conference on Monday to respond to questions about runoff from a train accident several days ago in Ohio.

According to Louisville Water, the spill happened after a train derailed on Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border. Several of the train cars were carrying hazardous chemicals. 

"The first and primary response was -- at the train derailment site -- was for vinyl chloride. So if you've read any articles on it, you know there was vinyl chloride released. That was mainly an airborne exposure. We don't have any detections of vinyl chloride in the water, in the Ohio River," said Chris Bobay, Louisville Water's water quality manager. "What we are seeing is really low levels of a compound called butyl acrylate." 

The spill is connected to the toxic train derailment in Ohio on Feb. 3.

Bobay said butyl acrylate is an ester. He said esters are known for imparting strong odors to the water. He said at low levels it often smells floral and at high levels can smell like paint.

"The levels we're seeing, we don't expect there to be any odor issues, but we have developed a treatment strategy to make sure we remove the odors, if they're there," he said.

Bobay said while butyl acrylate is being detected in the Ohio River, it is not being detected as far downstream as Louisville. 

Ohio train derailment

This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk and Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio are still on fire at mid-day Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The spill happened hundreds of miles from Louisville. Bobay said as of Monday afternoon, detections were discovered as far from the crash site as Steubenville, Ohio. But water utilities that monitor the Ohio River and the tributaries that feed into the river are sharing information.

"We are actively monitoring but we have not found any detections of this chemical in our water. Upstream utilities have, but we have not," Bobay explained.

Louisville Water does not expect the spill to create a problem locally.

"The Ohio River is a series of locks and dams so once this spill gets into our pool, the McAlpine Pool, once it passes Markland Dam, then we'll actually send our field team up try to quantify the levels. I do expect they'll continue to drop. They're already dropping pretty significantly to where we probably won't see this at all or be able to detect it. But even if we don't, we still plan to treat for this just out of an abundance of caution for our customers," said Bobay.

The plan is to use a conventional treatment and powdered activated carbon to minimize any taste or odor concerns.

Louisville Water said it operates an EPA-certified laboratory, and scientists do an average of 200 tests daily on drinking water. It is also part of a network of water utilities that rely on the Ohio River. It is also a member of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) and state and federal regulatory partners. ORSANCO has a sophisticated detection system that is located along the entire 981 miles of the Ohio River.

West Virginia American Water said Sunday that it's also going to install a secondary intake on the Guyandotte River in case there's a need to switch to an alternate water source. The utility noted that there hasn’t been any change in raw water at its Ohio River intake.

According to Norfolk Southern, it is working with the Columbiana County Health District, Ohio EPA, and the Ohio Department of Health to generate a plan to sample the Village of East Palestine's drinking water supply wells, drinking water system, and private wells in areas potentially impacted by the incident.

Norfolk Southern is also working with the NTSB on its investigation.

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved.