BERKELEY COUNTY, W.Va. — A precautionary closure of the water intake for the Berkeley County Public Service Water District near Falling Waters could happen as soon as Thursday, if not earlier, as what’s left of a latex product continues to make its way down the Potomac River.
With help from this week’s rain, the material was moving quicker than originally projected, according to the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin and, as of Wednesday morning, was forecasted to make it to the intake area by Thursday evening.
Christine Thiel, executive director of the Berkeley County Public Service Water District, said the district was planning to temporarily tap into several alternative water sources for the plant that supplies water to much of Berkeley County, minus Martinsburg.
“That plant can also be fed from a couple groundwater wells,” Thiel explained.
“The capacity of the groundwater wells isn’t as great as our river pumps, so we can’t fully substitute the wells for the river water, but we also have a plant in the southern part of the county that’s fed by a spring.” Operations at that plant were ramping up ahead of the intake closure.
A third option for water would be an interconnection with Martinsburg which gets its water from quarry and spring supplies.
Officials with Verso Corporation reported an unintentional release of approximately 9,500 gallons of Latex CP 620NA, a synthetic latex, into the sewer system for the Luke Mill, a paper mill, in Allegany County, Maryland on Sept. 23.
There was no direct release into the Potomac River, company officials said, because the water was first treated at the Upper Potomac River Commission’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“There is no threat to public health and, so far, tests for two of the chemicals of concern (styrene and butadiene) have come back negative from the EPA lab,” officials with Verso said.
“All of the actions being taken by water treatment facilities around the region are being done out of precaution.”
Thiel agreed the planned intake closure for the Berkeley County Public Service Water District was a preventative step.
“Our concern is more than just whether or not there’s a health risk posed by this, it is also that we have membrane filters at our river plant and we don’t know what impact this chemical might have on those filters,” she told MetroNews.
“Since we do have some alternate supplies, we aren’t going to take any chance that it causes any harm to our equipment.”
Those operating other water systems along the Potomac River have taken similar steps.
Officials in Paw Paw, W.Va. reported no problems from the latex product that had largely passed their intake by Tuesday. Paw Paw had been operating on water reserves since the weekend.
It was not immediately clear how long the Potomac River intake for the Berkeley County Public Service Water District would remain closed. Customers were being asked to conserve water by eliminating all unnecessary water usage through the weekend of Oct. 10.