"Post-fire water woes"

By Christopher Ruvo, Intelligencer, July 28, 2010:

Residents near last month's fire in Plumstead said their water has become too tainted to drink or bathe in.


Discolored, foaming and smelling like soot and sewage. . . .

Following the blaze, environmental officials claimed that no harmful chemicals had penetrated area waterways or drinking wells.

But following complaints . . . , the Bucks County Health Department is having the residents' drinking water tested for dangerous pollutants. . . .

Peter Noll, an environmental specialist with the county health department, said results from tests of water samples taken from the affected wells have not been returned yet.

The tests will show if volatile organics and inorganics - anything from oil to metals and other dangerous solids - have contaminated the water, Noll said.

He couldn't say for certain when the test results would be returned. . . .

"We have advised the lab of the urgency," said Noll.

The state Department of Environmental Protection will be notified of any pollution problems, should any be found, said Noll.

If chemical contamination is discovered, the DEP's hazardous sites cleanup program might get involved, said spokeswoman Deborah Fries. . . .

Fish that inhabited two ponds where the fire erupted were killed as a result of fallout from the fire. The ponds drain into the run-off ditch that still smells.

Environmental officials said the death of an undetermined number of carp was the result of runoff water from the firefighting effort. The water was low on oxygen and very hot, said officials.

"At the time of the fire, we did not suspect that contamination had left the site," said Noll.

Plumsteadville Fire Chief Brian DuBree said the estimated several million gallons of water used to fight the fire was necessary, as the blaze continued to flare up over the course of about a week. He noted a fire-retarding foam was also used in the effort.

Environmental officials have said that the industrial building housed primarily food preservatives. They said heating oil was on site, too.

One of the businesses there, Hawk Mold & Die, has a website that says it supplies products such lubricants, mold cleaners and rust preventatives, though it was unclear if any of those were stored in the building that caught fire. Also in the building were Custom Particle Reduction Inc. and Bucks County Trading Post, officials have said.

Shortly after the fire the state Department off Environmental Protection said the following chemicals were in the building: 2,000 pounds of sodium nitrate; 160,000 pounds of sodium benzoate; 10,000 pounds of tri-calcium citrate; an unknown amount of isopropyl alcohol; polyphenol sulfide; 300 gallons of liquid silane; and 275 gallons of heating oil.

The Bucks County Fire Marshal's Office suspected the fire might have started because of an electrical problem, but the building was too badly damaged for a definite ruling to be made.

The cause of the fire has been ruled undetermined.