Louisville Water’s water quality team continues its sampling following the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Today’s message is the same message that we’ve delivered every day: Louisville’s drinking water is high quality and safe to drink.
Based on conservative estimates of the travel time of the Ohio River, the water that was associated with the train derailment passed through Louisville on Monday. Louisville Water conducted frequent monitoring of the river over the past few days.
Test results released Tuesday morning mirrored what our continuous monitoring upriver has shown all along: our analyses of samples have not identified any detections of chemicals attributed to the train derailment.
Click Here to view Louisville Water’s sampling table.
“What happened in East Palestine Ohio was a major environmental emergency. But for the Ohio River, it was a different story. There was never a concern for public health based on data collected along the river,” said Manager of Water Quality & Compliance, Chris Bobay. “We are trained to respond to potential threats like this. Our water treatment plants are designed to remove contaminants like this.”
Every day, we sample the Ohio River before we start to treat the water for drinking water. You can trust that your health and safety are our top priority at Louisville Water.
Bobay said, “This is what we do. Protecting water quality is what we are all about because public health means so much to us.”
We continue to share our monitoring results and our experience with water utilities downstream on the Ohio River. We will continue to monitor the river over the next several days, tapering our frequency over that period.