Delaware River Chemical Spill Investigation Sought By Philly Reps

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia legislators joined colleagues in Bucks County in calling for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to investigate the cause of a chemical spill last month into the Delaware River that caused concerns over drinking water contamination.

State Sens. Art Haywood (D-4), Christine Tartaglione (D-2), Nikil Saval (D-1), Vincent Hughes (D-7), Sharif Street (D-3), and Jimmy Dillon (D-5) signed a letter with Bucks County-area state senators asking the DEP to investigate the cause of the spill from the Altuglas LLC Chemical Plant in Bristol Township on March 24.

The letter —addressed to DEP Acting Secretary Richard Negrin —also seeks to impose appropriate penalties against the company and develop policies to prevent future similar spills. It was signed by nine additional members of the General Assembly serving Bucks and Philadelphia counties, downstream from the site of the chemical spill.

A class-action lawsuit was filed last week in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas stating that defendants Altuglas LLC and Trinseo PLC have admitted that the chemical spill stemmed from an “equipment failure.”

A Change.org petition was also launched, calling for the immediate shutdown of Trinseo PLC., a specialty material solutions provider, which said in a statement that the March 24 spill was caused after a pipe carrying a non-toxic "latex emulsion product" above ground from the production area of its Altuglas plant to a holding tank failed.

The petition currently has more than 30,000 signatures.

The lawsuit states that between 8,100 and 12,000 gallons of the solution containing butyl acetate, ethyl acetate, and methyl methacrylate were released into the Delaware River. It entered the Otter Creek through a stormwater drain before flowing into the Delaware River.

Trinseo explained how the spill happened in a statement on its website last month.

"The Delaware River is a source of drinking water for millions of Pennsylvanians," the letter states. "Illegal discharges like this pose a direct risk to their health and safety. Moreover, the release of hazardous substances into Otter Creek and the Delaware River threatens the ecosystem of the entire region."

The legislators are asking the DEP for "real-time monitoring and detection systems" for chemical plants that are near drinking water supplies.