How a wrong chemical got into Anamosa’s water remains under review

Anamosa officials alerted the state and the public about an emulsifier inadvertently getting into the water supply within hours of discovering the contamination, officials said.

On Monday morning, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned residents they should not drink Anamosa water after city officials discovered that an unknown substance had been mixed into city water sometime over the weekend.

The substance was later identified as triethanolamine, an emulsifier and surfactant used in cosmetics and detergents and not consider harmful in the small amount that got into the water.

The short-lived scare ultimately was blamed on a mislabeled chemical. But just how that came to be - and a community's water supply put at risk by a chemical not identified for hours - remains under review.

The DNR says one to three gallons of the chemical were mixed into a diluted solution, which was then mixed into the city's water storage of about 750,000 gallons.

'It's a scary situation,” City Manager Alan Johnson said. 'Providing clean drinking water is our primary goal.”

Anamosa Water Superintendent Jim Henson was on vacation Friday when he got a call from another city employee and a chemical distributor saying the color and viscosity of the chemical mix going into the city's water didn't look right, Johnson said. Henson ordered the water system shut down so the city could investigate.

'Nobody knew that the system could reboot itself,” Johnson said. 'When he (Henson) walked in the door Monday morning, he saw the pump was mixing.”

Henson did a manual override to prevent the automated system from restarting, Johnson said. He then alerted community members and the DNR, which distributed a news release warning residents to use bottled water, said Amber Sauser, an environmental specialist with the DNR's Manchester office.

The advisory was lifted Monday evening after the system was flushed. Water treatment continues and the city reordered chemicals from another supplier, Johnson said.

The triethanolamine was improperly labeled at Viking Chemical, of Rockford, Ill., which supplies chemicals to Water Solutions. That company in turn distributes chemicals to the city of Anamosa, Johnson said.

Viking Chemical's Bryan Selander said Tuesday the company still is reviewing what happened.

'In all the years I've been here, this is a unique event,” he said. 'Anytime anything goes wrong, we do a root cause analysis.”

Viking does not supply chemicals to the Cedar Rapids or Iowa City water treatment facilities, city officials said.

The DNR is waiting on lab tests and information from Viking before completing an investigation, Sauser said. Other agencies, such as certifying groups or the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, may also have roles in the probe, she said.