NE Ohio Train Derailment: City of Dayton says water system not threatened
People in East Palestine and across Ohio are wondering is their water and air safe?
>>Medical clinic to open in East Palestine following train derailment
News Center 7′s Mike Campbell spoke with the City of Dayton and they tell him our water system is not threatened by the impact of the train derailment in Northeast Ohio.
The City of Dayton depends on the Great Buried Miami Aquifer for water, all underground, no surface sources of drinking water. That means no concerns due to creek or river contamination for safe drinking water.
People all want and expect our water to be safe when they open the tap on a sink.
But people across Ohio are thinking about that more than ever after watching the fireball and cataclysmic cloud that took place after a dangerous train derailment in Northeast Ohio on February 6.
“It is nice to tell people we’re not impacted by the spill that happened in East Palestine,” said Keshia Kinney, the Division Manager for Water Supply and Treatment in Dayton.
>> RELATED: DeWine requests federal assistance for East Palestine train derailment
Kinney tells Campbell that Dayton pumps and provides water for all of Montgomery County from the underground source.
“We have a source water protection program, that has no surface water, and includes 500 monitoring wells in the system that we use as an early detection program,” she said.
The city tests water quality every two hours at their two water treatment plants and one of which is on Ottawa Street, Kinney said.
They also have an entire water quality lab where a variety of tests are done.
“We test the alkaline levels everyday,” said Eric Thompson.
Kinney walked through several section of the lab, from basic testing of water as it is treated and softened to testing volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
They also test for things like chloroform or e-coli bacteria.
>> RELATED: DeWine says ‘no contamination’ from derailment found in East Palestine drinking water
“If the sample is yellow, it is chloroform positive,” said Brandon Turner. “If it glows, it is e-coli bacteria.”
Campbell said there were no positive tests at the lab while News Center 7 was there.
Dayton also has 125 sampling sites in neighborhoods across the city, in the distribution system headed to homes to check daily for any potential problems.
>>RELATED: Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derails outside of Detroit
Campbell reports people working here are happy we do not rely on any surface water sources and say the Northeast Ohio train derailment is still a good reminder for us.
“This does put more emphasis on protecting our source water and make people more cognizant of what they’re putting on the ground,”
The city has 125 monitoring wells and dozens of wells that pump the water up from the underground aquifers to the treatment plants.
Dayton can pump 60 million gallons of water a day, supplying water everyone in the city and across Montgomery County.
