Water in private wells at 15 Derry Township homes that initially tested positive for a petroleum-based chemical was ruled free of the substance and subsequently drinkable Tuesday by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The department held a hearing yesterday at the township municipal building for residents of the homes located on Caldwell-Paradise Lane near the Keystone Foam Co. plant destroyed by fire Aug. 2.
Examinations of the wells were done at the residents' request because of suspected chemicals mixed with water used to fight the fire. The hearing's purpose was to discuss results of well-water testing on their properties and whether consuming the water could pose a health risk.
Department officials said T-Butyl alcohol, a substance found in petroleum products, is not present in the wells.
"I'm 95 percent sure you can drink your water," said Philip B. Conlin, sanitarian supervisor for the department's Bureau of Water Supply Management, to about 25 residents. "We'll be positive in about two weeks."
That's how long it will take for the department to complete laboratory analysis on a supply of hydrochloric acid now thought to be the cause of the T-Butyl alcohol readings found in water samples taken from all but one of the residents' wells.
Efforts to determine any potential health risks had been hampered because both well-water test samples and "blanks," which serve as a quality control check, resulted in positive T-Butyl alcohol findings for the substance.
The department now suspects that the hydrochloric acid inserted as a preservative into all but one sample and blanks may have contained the T-Butyl alcohol traces found during tests.
"Because the samples were collected on different days and the laboratory conducting the sampling did not report contamination of T-Butyl alcohol with their internal blanks, it appears that the detections of T-Butyl alcohol are the result of contamination of the preservative or the bottles used to collect the samples ... before the samples were collected," Conlin said.
Prior to yesterday's hearing, the department advised the Caldwell-Paradise residents not to drink or use the well water for cooking.
Those like Theresa Miedel and Vicky Seroki said they still do not plan to consume their well water despite the information the department gave them.
"I won't be happy until Keystone Foam pays to put in municipal water for all of our properties," Seroki said.
Conlin said he will personally notify each affected well owner of the results of the analysis on the hydrochloric acid supply in question.
Township Supervisor Brian Edmiston said he was happy with the findings and the department's willingness to investigate the problem further.
"I'm glad they're not walking away from these peoples' concerns," Edmiston said.
Larger text
Smaller text
Print this article
E-mail this article
