DALLAS – Officials in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Sunday declared the city's water safe to drink after the supply was tainted by a toxic chemical used in asphalt production.
The tap water was not considered safe for drinking, cooking or bathing for four days after an asphalt emulsifying agent leaked into water lines in the industrial district.
The contaminant was traced to Ergon Asphalt and Emulsions Inc., where a backflow incident occurred on Nov. 23. Ergon leases its site from the refiner Valero, which provided a timeline of events leading to the drinking water ban.
Valero's asphalt terminal has an interconnection with the city's water supply line, which provides potable water to the terminal. A soap solution containing 2% Indulin AA-86 and hydrochloric acid flowed into the separate water line within the Valero terminal, according to a statement from Ergon.
On Dec. 14, the city issued water restrictions while it investigated whether it was possible for the backflow to have traveled upstream and reached Valero's interconnection with the city water supply line.
Valero provided truckloads of bottled water during the four-day ban on consumption of city water.
"While we are not the source of the contamination, we are actively assisting the City and other agencies in their efforts to restore water to the entire city," according to a statement from the company.
On Sunday, Corpus Christi Mayor Dan McQueen declared the water supply safe to drink based on reports from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency, which is continuing to investigate.
"We will turn our attention to investigating the release at the facility as soon our urgent work is completed and take the appropriate action if any state or federal laws have been violated by the company," according to a statement from the EPA. "We cannot speculate on what our investigation will find and recognize that it will be a lengthy process."
The investigation comes as the city is negotiating a consent decree with the EPA and U.S. Department of Justice on its sanitary sewer overflow program.
"Future capital investments to address these overflows are expected to be sizable, but manageable given the system's strong management, including long-term financial forecasting and multi-year capital budgeting," analyst John Nichols of Moody's Investors Service wrote in a July 21 report.
Moody's rated $84.6 million of Corpus Christi's utility refunding bonds A1 with a stable outlook.
On Friday, attorney Josh Hopkins of the law firm Elliot & Ritch LLP filed a
The restaurant's owners "have been forced to buy bottled water, ice and otherwise modify its business at great cost and sustained a loss in business due to the tap water use ban," the lawsuit states.
As many as 1,000 restaurants may have been affected, attorneys estimate.
The lawsuit came a day after other local law firms, Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP and Sico Hoelscher Harris & Braugh LLP took similar legal action. Nueces County Court-at-Law No. 1 Judge Robert J. Vargas signed a temporary restraining order designed to protect evidence in the case.
In a city of 350,000 residents, the Corpus Christi water utility has about 97,970 customers. The water supply comes from the Nueces, Lavaca, and Colorado River basins.
The city is also building a 41-mile-line to the utility's water rights along the Colorado River.
Water supply usage is skewed to the commercial and industrial users at 42% for fiscal 2015, which include several large refineries. The 10 largest treated water customers accounted for 25% of fiscal 2015 water sales.
Over the last year, three boil water notices were issued due to high fecal coliform/E. coli bacteria and low disinfectant levels, according to Moody's.
"System management has taken steps in response to these events in the form of operational adjustments to support system-wide disinfectant distribution, and is in the process of negotiating its compliance requirements with the local and state officials," Nichols said in July. "Continued water quality issues could place pressure on operations and therefore negatively impact the current ratings."
